Sakabatô Crossing: The Blossom and The Blade
by Mischief1689
Summary: Sachi was from the time when Kenshin was Battôsai,who found him again after an abrupt separation six years ago.Quiet and introverted, there is something more to this girl’s past then she’s willing to tell.When the slave traders come a-looking,will her hid
1. Default Chapter

Authoress's Note:

Kon'nichiwa all! I've always wanted to do this, have a little Author's Corner to share stuff with the readers like what Watsuki does…the _power_, the _fun_! ::salivates:: But for now, I'll have to be content with this.

Welcome to Sakabatô Crossing: The Blossom and the Blade! First, some things you should know:

Though it may _appear _complete…it's not. I still have a whole lot of scenes to add in into their places, and once I write them (I have the ideas, just not the time!) ::sobs:: So there are lots of non-sequitour thoughts, but that's most mangas for you. Pick up your nearest on and take a peek in it. It doesn't 'flow' scene-to-scene. It's all chopped up in little snippets. So that's what form I took with this.

I don't mean to insult anyone out there, so for hard-core Kaoru/Kenshin shippers, unless you can handle the idea of Kenshin with someone else, don't read it. The rest of you, enjoy! ::sparklesparkle::

Let's give a ::whoot:: for crazy assassins, without which this story wouldn't have a plot! S of which, I just discovered two days ago. So all's good, all's good… WHOOT!

I'll be updating this whenever I add scenes into Acts, so be watching for those. I'll drop a line onto my comments page to let you know when you should be looking for a new scene, and where.

If anyone would like to point out a mistake, misspelling, typo, or advice, fell free to drop a line, please! As for flames, they will be sprayed out with my Super-soaker. ::holds it at the ready::

For those of you that need/want/have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll find a Japanese Phrases Glossary in the last chapter. Titled, informatively, Japanese Glossary. I hope it helps you with any of your questions!

I do not own any of the original Rurouni Kenshin characters, (though I wish I did. In that case, Kenshin would really be kept on a leash like in volume 3 of the mangas…that was a brilliant thought! ::thinks for a moment. Sees Kenshin on leash, arrow pointing to sakabatô. Sees point that if Kenshin didn't like leash, leash would come off, maybe as well as my head. Maybe not so much a good idea, then.::)

Without any further chattering from me, I present you with Sakabatô Crossing. May you enjoy it. Domo arigatô for your time!

-Teh Authoress

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Act One: The Blossom and the Blade

Hitokiri Battôsai stood in the doorway of the inn and tavern, taking in the smoky interior, the rotting wood, and the dim lanterns. He shrugged, and moved himself over to the landlord. "This one would like a room, please," he requested quietly.

"A room? Very good. Also maybe a warm bath made ready for you and refreshment?" The landlord took in the stocky red-head from head to foot, with a measuring look. "And possibly, a companion?"

Battôsai's face froze. "Bath, food and drink, yes. A slave, no, thank you."

"Very well," the greasy landlord consented, folding his hands on his thighs and bowing. Battôsai slightly returned the gesture, and turned toward the counter as the landlord swished away in the gaudy kimono. The Hitokiri picked his way through the rubble of humans, stinking of unwashed body and sake. Opium floated through the air, and a few men were slumped against the backs of booths. Slave girls accompanied a few of them, passed out from the sweet drug as well.

The tender passed him a small cup of sake, and he drank it meditatively. Nodding, and murmuring "_Domo arigatõ_," to the man, who nodded back, he went back to the door and looked out. A distant _thump_ from overheard him caused him to look up sharply, and then a moment later, the sound of a shriek and feet pounding down the back staircase caused even some of the rabble in stupor's to blink and look up in mixtures of annoyance and interest.

A slight girl came flying around the corner, shouting something behind her as she ran about 'assuming men'. A second thundering of feet in the stairwell, and she shot forward again, straight at Battôsai. Her eyes locked on the sword at his side, and then her pale green eyes flicked up to his face. They locked eyes, and he realized a second before what would happen. He clenched his muscles, and she slammed into him, running her hand down his side to his sword, and drawing it swiftly from its' sheath with a _shing_.

As she whirled, he watched as her gaze fell to the blade. She turned it over so that the blade turned out with a flick of her wrist, and planted her feet with it pointed in front of her, impaling the man after her on the blue steel as he ran forward toward her. His jaw fell open in slack, and he stared down to his stomach. She twisted the blade, and he dropped off the end of the katana.

Blood pooled around him where he lay on the floor, hemorrhaging and jerking in spasms. The fair-haired girl planted a foot on the dying man's back and leaned down to him. "A prostitute I may be, but forced intercourse is still rape in my book," she hissed at him, and drew the flat edges of the blade over his kimono, cleaning it. She stood still over him for another minute, watching as his breathing gasped to a stop, making sure he was dead.

She turned when she was satisfied with the man's demise, and placed a hand on Battôsai's shoulder gently, sheathing the _sakabatõ_ once again, replacing it with a slight _thunk_ as the hilt hit the rim. "_Domo_," she said quietly, looking up at him and then turning away to the landlord who had come down to the tavern once again. "Sachi-san, that's the fourth man you've killed since I took you in here ten months ago! What must I tell you over and over again? The customer is the one who gets what he wants!"

Sachi stopped before the landlord and jabbed a finger into his slumping chest. "And we wouldn't be having this problem, Tengai-san, if you stopped giving me perverts and rapists. I don't mind my job as long as _I'm_ the one in charge." She turned and walked back up the stairs as the mess of tavern men turned away, sure there was no more amusement to watch.

Battôsai gestured over to the landlord, who came, bowing and wiping his hands across his lap nervously as he came. He drew even to the hitokiri's side, and Battôsai lowered his mouth to the landlord's ear. "Though I do not have any qualms with your manner of business, Landlord, I do have qualms with forcing ungentle men onto young women to earn money for you. See to it that each man is read his authority before he takes a companion here."

"I will do that, Hitokiri-dono."

"See that you do, or I will be speaking to you again. And the next time we have this conversation, you won't be as comfortable as you are now."

The Battôsai turned away from the man. "I'd like my room, bath, and meal, if you would, please."

"Certainly. Right away."

"Himura! Look what we have for you!" The other Hitokiri cried gleefully to their comrade, and he turned from the bar to see where I stood between them. His eyes widened, and he turned to his friends. "Sugi-kun, Tagame-kun, what is this?"

They grinned at him, pleased at themselves. I rolled my eyes, bored with the affair already. "She's a gift from us to you, Himura-kun. She's the best they have."

" 'She' has a name," I protested dryly. "And unlike aged sake, I am the best _prostitute slave_ they have. A person, not a thing."

"True," Hitokiri Battôsai agreed. "And what is your name?"

"Shinrin Sachi."

"_Kon'nichiwa_, Sachi-dono. I am Himura Battôsai."

"So I have heard. _Kon'nichiwa_."

"You were the one who drew my sakabatõ and knew it for what it was." A statement.

"_Hai_." A statement of my own.

"But how would one know so much?"

"An…acquaintance who spent a bit of time here traded me lessons for…services."

"I see. So one would know how to use such a sakabatõ."

"As I know how to use much of other katana."

"Really? You must show me some time." His interest was piqued.

"I will. And possibly, in return, you would be willing to be my sensei for a time, no?"

"We shall see."

Battôsai was sitting in one of the back booth areas of the tavern, nursing a cup of sake by himself. The dim lantern light flickered over his face and his red flame hair in its high ponytail of a Hitokiri, making his eyes appear darker and deeper then what they were.

I made my way across the room to him, dodging the reaching and grasping hands of other patrons as they reached out to grab me or pinch me. Years of practice made the habit second-nature, and I could now dodge someone's hand while simultaneously smiling at them, as if apologizing for being a bit out of their reach. A few frowned in dismay and rejection, but they let me pass by.

Sliding into the booth across from him, I planted my elbows on the small table and rested my chin in my hands, smiling at the Hitokiri, who looked up. "Care for company?" I asked, leaving the question open for refusal if he wanted to be alone. He smiled at me, nodding. "Company is always welcome here."

I gestured to his sake, half-drunk. "Not to your liking?" Battôsai shook his head. "No. I'm not much of a sake drinker," he said softly. "I prefer green tea to anything."

I looked up from the booth and gestured to one of the serving girls. She came over to the booth, averting her eyes from me, as most of the shy girls did around me. To them, my trade was one of unspoken things, and I was little better off then a street harlot.

"A cup of green tea, please, and quickly," I ordered politely, watching her eyes as they flicked over me in curiosity as it got the best of her.

"Yes, miss."

"Make that two cups," Battôsai put in, looking at me quickly to see if I would comply. I nodded to him.

"Two."

"Yes, sir. Two cups."

"_Domo arigatô_."

She hurried away to go get the tea, and the Hitokiri looked over at me, letting his indigo eyes wander over my face as he watched me. It wasn't a rude gesture, coming from him, but more one of awareness. As an assassin, much called for close scrutiny, so he was already in the habit of never hiding the power of his full-force stare.

The tea came over, and I took a delicate sip. I looked over the rim to Battôsai, who sipped his own, and then nodded in approval. "Good tea."

Our conversation lulled for a moment, when we both transferred our attention to the room around us, rather then each other.

My attention was abruptly brought back when I realized he had said something to me that I hadn't heard. "I'm sorry. What was that?"

He tapped the tabletop with a long finger, and I placed my hand down on the table next to his finger. Taking my hand in his, he turned it over, so that my palm was up. Resting the tips of two fingers in the center of my palm, he repeated his question.

"How did you come here?"

I grimaced. "By chance. And you?"

"By duty."

"That's right. You're a…loyalist?"

"_Hai_."

"I thought so. You are a Hitokiri."

"By Fate rather then choice. I never dreamed that my sense of justice would lead me to kill."

"But you must have trained in _kenjutsu_ before that, surely," I argued back.

"Yes. But I bet that you never guessed that growing up in an okiya would leave you as a slave prostitute."

My eyes widened at his statement. "How did you knew I grew up in a geisha house?" I asked in a sharp voice. The Hitokiri smiled and placed his palm on mine.

"No worries. I'm not going to say anything to anyone. I just knew from the way that you pour tea, and your demeanor and the way you use your eyes."

"So then you must have been to a geisha house before."

"No. I haven't. But I've known many geisha through other circumstances."

"You're a very interesting man, Himura Battôsai," I said, smiling wryly at him, tilting the corners of my mouth up. A hand suddenly descended onto my shoulder, and we both looked up. I smiled at a darkly handsome man who belonged to the hand. Clean-shaven with wide dark eyes and shoulder-length black hair, his full mouth curved into a smile. "Kei."

One of my favorite customers stood next to me, smiling down at me. "May I steal you away for an evening, Sachi-chan?"

"As always."

"I hoped you'd say that."

Remembering the other man, I gestured to Battôsai. "Kei, this is Himura Battôsai."

"_Hajimemashite_," Battôsai said, looking up at Kei and smiling. "_Yoroshiku onegaishimasu_."

Kei smiled back confidently. "_Kochirakoso yoroshiku onegaishimasu_. I've heard much of you, Battôsai. Welcome to the Green Dragon. And it seems as if you've already met Sachi-chan, the most beautiful girl to ever set foot here."

I laughed at the samurai. "Kei, _îe_, _heta desu_, really." The man grinned back at my booth companion.

"See? She's even modest. Perfection." He leaned down to kiss the side of my neck, and I pushed him away gently.

"Kei, you know I don't like compliments that I don't deserve."

"The moon doesn't even deserve you. Now come, the night grows older and soon she'll pass." He grabbed my hand, pulling me up and making the hand that Battôsai held slip out from under his. I laughed at Kei's eagerness and then turned back to look at the Hitokiri. My smile slowly faded at his look as he watched me go. Kei said something, and I held Battôsai's dark eyes for a moment more, then turned to listen to Kei.

"Who was he to you?" Kei was asking me quietly.

"I belong to him for awhile," I replied, and sought out the red haired man through the crowd as we passed through the door. His gaze still followed me, weighted down with some unknown emotion that lay far under the surface of his deep eyes.

Kei didn't believe in women using weapons, and sat frowning with a dark expression on his face as he watched as Battôsai and I stood in the garden behind the inn. We both were holding katana that had been borrowed from a few of the Hitokiri friends of Battôsai and were wrapped in cotton to pad them and protect us from the sharp blades. Battôsai pointed to my grip on the katana from where he stood, pointing and telling me to slide my upper hand down a bit. I looked down, not seeing what was wrong. My grip felt fine to me.

He walked over to me, and covered my hand with his, sliding it down to where he wanted it. Standing behind me and using his hands to guide mine, he showed me how the new lower grip gave more stability and force when used in a downward attack.

I nodded, concentrating more on the sword in my hands and the lesson then on the man standing so close behind me that when he guided my hands in an outward swing, our bodies brushed and silk whispered against cotton. Neither was I paying any attention to the man on the stairs whose chi was growing more and more increasingly moody. I was under the spell of the sword in my hands, and the song it made when cutting through the air, steel still singing even under wraps of cotton.

Battôsai backed away to watch me try the different swings on my own, and nodded, satisfied for now. He walked to the other side of the temporary 'fighting circle', standing on guard and calling the start of the duel. We moved in at the same time, katana meeting, cotton blade against cotton blade, and then unwinding from the brace, stepping back to circle and curve in gracefully, slowly, almost like a dance of swords. The two dancers were caught up in the dance, moving as one to block or parry, the intricate movements of the dance of swords guiding out feet without thought, gently seducing us into the whispers of steel song and the careful movements of the body, a small dip back, or a lean forward.

We came together at the same moment, both fighting for dominance, forehead to forehead as we both leaned in over the locked swords, trying to make the other give in to the pressure. My head raised almost as if in the spell of the moment of battle, and I met the almost purple eyes of the Battôsai as they regarded me carefully. Stuck to my spot, I kept leaning in, our legs entwined below, stepping in between the other's stance, and hip resting against the other's hip. Our eyes met, almost daring the other to submit, but at the time time, speaking through the swords as they gently pressed against each other, a whisper of the strong leaning on the other in mutual trust.

Stuck in each other's eyes and minds, we didn't move for a moment, afraid to shift of unlock the tie between us. From the steps, I heard a rustle of cloth, and a sigh of annoyance. I turned to the sounds, eyebrows furrowing in question, breaking the dance. Battôsai and I took a step back from each other, lowering our katana.

Kei had risen, and was starting to walk back up the stairs to the garden gate and the inn. I flipped my katana over, and thrust the hilt end at Battôsai, who took it, a bewildered expression on his face as I backed up, and then turned, hurrying after the departing samurai. "Kei, wait! Where are you going?" I called as I ran up to his side, stopping beside him and resting a gentle hand on his tall shoulder to stop him. He turned to me, looking down and sighing.

"Back to my lord, where I am needed. I see that my time here has come to an end. I wish the two of you all the happiness in the world together."

"What? Kei, I don't understand…it's not…"

"I know what I see."

He turned, shrugging my hand off of his shoulder, and catching it as it fell, squeezing it for the last time.

Taking a few steps backward, he bowed lightly to me, and then looked past my shoulder and made the same gesture to Battôsai, where he still stood, holding both swords by his sides. His back to me, he walked away, letting himself through the garden gate and up the other set of stairs that led to the back porch. I stared at him as he walked away, his proud back to me, shoulders strong and back, head held high. "Kei…" I called, and when he didn't turn back to me, I trailed off into a whisper. "Kei."

I looked back in confusion at Battôsai, who was watching Kei walk away as I was. His gaze shifted back to me, and took in my expression. The door to the inn shut in it's frame, and I turned back to the waiting man in the garden, walking down the steps to him.

"I have no idea what just happened," I told him, stopping on the last step, reaching up to rub my forehead in bewilderment. He reached up for my hand, and took it in his, pulling it down from it's nervous rubbing and squeezing it gently.

He gave me a sympathetic small smile, and gently let my hand slip from his. "We all have to say our good-byes at some point. I'm sure Kei had his reasons."

Reaching down, he picked up the katana and silently unwrapped them, and then rested them on his shoulders as he walked up the stone steps, carrying them back inside the inn in silence.

I sat down on the ground abruptly, digging my fingers through my hair as I rested my forehead on my knees and closed my eyes. Thoughts whirled in my head, amid the confusion. Did Kei leave because of Battôsai? If so, why? What reason did he have to feel threatened by the other man? What could he see that I could not?

Then there was the question of me. What you saw with me was what you received. I hadn't even ever been sure that Kei cared for me more then a companion. But then why wouldn't he have returned my calls to him? For someone like Kei, I thought that he knew that I didn't mix what I did for a trade with my own personal life. If he thought because he could have my heart because he had my body, he was seriously mistaken.

But then again, what is a heart but muscle and blood coursing through veins? And then why was I wondering if it was it even possible to mix a blade and a heart? A blade could hurt and kill, true, but a lonely heart was something to hurt forever.

I sighed heavily, scrubbing at my eyes with the backs of my hands. Emotions were deep and strong, and tied you to other people. They were almost too tricky to be worth it all. I had lived this long without anyone else to lean on. I could continue to do so. But how long could I last when instead of turning away, someone offered a shoulder out of kindness, and nothing more? Who had ever been kind, without wanting a piece of me in return? Who had ever wanted to know the girl before the icon? Who had wanted _me _before my body?

The red sun was setting behind me and to the mountains, staining everything around me the color of freshly spilled heart's blood. I reached out a hand to the dying rays, and it turned the same red color as everything else, making it appear as if blood had spilled onto my hands. Was I unconsciously dipping my hands into the rivers of blood a man spilled if I became a part of him and his life? Did I want to share the blame of lives with him?

Snatching my hand away and out of the colors, I buried it into my wide sleeves in shame, and then gradually pulled it back out again. I held it up, higher to the deepest of the reds, and looked at it carefully, turning my hand to examine it from all angles with the redness spilling onto it. Nowhere in an innocent slender hand could I find fault, even if it was joined with a callused one still wet with life-blood from the battlefield.

Closing my eyes tight, I leaned forward onto the ground until my cheek was resting across the cool grass, and I used the firm earth to ground myself from being pulled away in a tide of emotions. Breathing slowly, I sighed as I felt my body meld with the steady ground.

I knocked gently on the door of the Hitokiri's room, and heard his murmur of welcome come from within. Pushing the door open gently, I peered in at where he stood by the window, above the futon that was where I slept in my room, across the room from his own by the door.

He looked up in surprise, and I bowed lightly and then crossed the room to join him at the window, looking out over the court of the inn and the road that people traveled hurriedly on, carrying baskets on treading on worn reed sandals.

"Forgive me for my intrusion, please," I started carefully, still not meeting his gaze but instead looking toward the bustle of human life as it streamed by the window.

"_Îe_. Nothing you could do would offend me, Sachi-san."

I smiled a bit. "You're a good man, Battôsai, for all of the stories of killing and bloodshed. Even as a Hitokiri, you keep your gentleness," I said, turning toward him and reaching up to push some of his hair out of his face and trace his scarred skin on his cheek. I lifted my ice green eyes to meet his light purple and blue ones.

"The question is what you want."

The Hitokiri turned to me. "I'm going with the other Hitokiri today. There are a few rebels who are causing trouble in the outskirts of the town. We want to stop the noise they are causing."

I bit my bottom lip reflectively. I knew it was no use to say, 'be safe.' I nodded, and he smiled at me, turning and walking away. At the garden gate, I yelled after him. "Hitokiri!"

He stopped and looked back at me in question. I ran up to him, before my mind could convince me not to. "Good luck," I said quickly, closing my eyes and brushing his lips with mine. He stiffened momentarily, and then returned my tentative kiss.

"_Domo arigatõ_, Sachi-chan," he said, pulling away, and then he was gone.

I walked back into the inn, and the landlord was waiting for me in the tavern area. "It's a full day for you, Sachi-san." He pointed to men waiting in booths or by the bar. "That one, then that, then him, and this…he next." I nodded in consent, my heart hollow, and gestured to the first. He rose eagerly, hope on his face. I nodded to him, and he came forward. I took him by the hand and led him up the stairs to my chamber reluctantly, and keeping the mask of cheerfulness and willingness on my face.

I do not mind lying with those who are genuinely pleasant, or eager-to-please. I wouldn't mind boosting those men's confidence who need it, the lesser-men, picked on. If I can make them feel powerful and more fulfilled, I will do it. Honorable soldiers, samurai and hitokiri, those who serve others, I will serve. But there are some that I just will not pleasure.

Men who are arrogant; who use women like they are meant to be used for one purpose and no other. Men who think they own me. Or men who treat me as a lesser being. Powerful men who misuse their power. Men who misuse me.

I have taken all types. I have been used, abused, mistreated. And in return, I have been treated as a princess, as a counter-part, as a woman. You must take to give, and take both good and bad.

I came down to the first level for the last time, weary and ready for nothing more then a warm meal and then a soft bed. But Tengai obviously had other plans for me.

"Sachi. One more customer. Take him upstairs, please."

I regarded the man. Squat and fat, he leered at me, and offered a bejeweled hand. I raised an eyebrow at it, and looked back up at Tengai. "No."

Tengai grabbed me by my shoulders and slammed me into the counter. "Sachi. You live here, eat here, and sleep here based on what you earn me. The clothes you wear and anything you receive are all from what you earn plying your trade. And if you don't earn, you don't stay. You understand?"

Shaking him off, I glared up at him and straightened my yukata out. "Perfectly," I retorted. "And I still refuse. I have earned more then my share for the day."

"He is willing to pay great amounts. He has heard of you."

"Aren't I lucky?" I said sarcastically. "I bet I'm the only girl around here who is known for her ability to bed a man."

"It's great amounts of money." Tengai's tone dropped and he pulled me to his side and whispered into my ear. "It's enough to buy your freedom."

My eyes widened as I heard the sacred word. Freedom. I would never have to bed another man in my life that I didn't want to. There would never be orders for me again. I could get out of this hellhole, and go out on my own, to Kyoto, or Edo. I could even go to Europe, where my parents had been from. No more of this life.

I nodded, as if in a trance. "Yes," I whispered, "Yes." The landlord pushed me after the fat lord, and I followed in a daze. Up to my chamber, and I stood in the middle of the floor, eyes staring straight ahead, but not seeing.

The man sat on the futon, toothily smiling at me. "Your reputation exceeds you, Sachi-_yabi_. I heard of your sweet blossom from a successful young friend who traveled to see me and stopped here. I decided I must try you for myself."

My hands stopped at my collarbone, and my heart began to race. He was one of those. One of those men who thought because they had the money, they could buy you, like some rare jewel or flower, to look pretty and obey what they said. I was not a flower. I was not a jewel. And I wasn't, no, **couldn't** do this. Even in the face of my freedom for the rest of my life, my measure of self kept me from it. I would never lower myself to this man. Years ago, when I was wretched and wished only to die, I would have, but now that I had come so far, I could not.

His expression turned dark. "Take off your clothes!" he demanded, and when I did not acquiesce, he glowered at me. "Do you dare not obey me? I shall teach you, whore. On your knees!" he commanded, rising up and pointing to the floor. "Kneel before me." I shook my head, incapable of words.

"KNEEL! Or you get nothing of my money!"

Money be damned. "I don't want your money," I spat at him, and he raised a hand as if to hit me. I stood my ground, jaw jutted out, and saw the hand start to fall. I shut my eyes and awaited the blow. Once he struck me, I had reason to strike him back. This puffed-up egotistic would not ever make this same mistake again.

I never felt the blow. Instead, the screen door flew open, and Battôsai appeared, face full of wrath. He grabbed the lord's hand as it fell, and the man cried out in pain. Battôsai released him, and pressed a pouch of coins into his hand. "Here is your money returned. Go now, and never come back."

The fat man nodded in fear, and turned from the mighty Hitokiri, shuffling as fast out of the door as he could as I flung myself into Battôsai's arms, burying my head in his chest. "I couldn't do it. All that money, and my only chance, but I couldn't bring myself to serve him. Tengai is going to murder me."

The Hitokiri shook his head. "Îe. No worries. Tengai won't worry you. He has his money, and that lord has his money, and you're safe."

I pulled back from him and looked up at him in confusion. "What? I don't understand…"

Battôsai smiled at me gently. "Tengai has his money. And I gave the lord money of mine that matched the amount he paid. And now you are free. You are free, _bijin_. Now what will you do with your life?"

I looked up at the Hitokiri and said the first thing that came to my mind. It spilled out my mouth, and as soon as it hung in the air, it sounded beautiful. "I'll stay with you, Hitokiri."

He frowned, looking troubled. "The life of a Hitokiri is no place for those who linger with him for either love of loyalty," he said. "I do not wish to place you in harm's way, even for one was skillful as you are. If you were harmed because of me, that would be a terrible thing."

"Then where would I go? I have this life, and you. I have nothing else."

"Then I would wish you would stay with me."

"As I wish."

"As I."

Battôsai stood next to one of his fellow Hitokiri friends, a tall man who far overshadowed the smaller man, but at the same time was listening to the smaller and younger man speak with a look of reverence and concentration. The tall man nodded once, and then twice, and Battôsai flashed him a quick smile before the man gestured in response.

I sidled up beside Himura quietly, my head down as if not to catch the other man's gaze and distract him. Instead, I reached up and gently caught Battôsai's strong chin and jaw-line in my hand and drew it down so that I could whisper in his ear without breaking into their conversation.

Himura frowned, and held up a long finger to his friend. "Excuse me a moment, Hanzo-kun," he asked, and then bent his head back down to listen to me. My lips brushed against his ear as I whispered hurriedly.

"There's a man out in the tavern you might be interested in seeing. He says his name is Shishio Makoto. And he asked for you by _name_."

The calm purple eyes flashed a deep gold, and Battôsai spun around me, grasping my shoulders in his hands and shooting a look over his shoulder. "You. Outside into the garden. Now."

I opened my mouth to protest, but he covered it with a hand. "No. No back-talk now. I'll be out quickly."

"But I don't-"

"Shh. I know you don't. But we're not safe right now. I'll follow you out after I make sure he's who he says he is." Thrusting me away and in the direction of the back door, he turned to his friend. "It appears we have a guest."

"Who?"

"Shishio."

"WHA-AT?!"

"Yes. I know. If he's found us here…he really is determined to face us again and end it now…" he trailed off and glanced over to where I was standing in the doorway, transfixed at the interchange going between these two men that the single name had wrought.

"Sachi! Out! Now!"

I turned, fleeing out the door at Battôsai's sharp tone and hard eyes. His high ponytail flashed around a corner as he ran toward the tavern room, and then he was lost from sight as the door shut behind me.

Battôsai twisted in his sleep. I sat up on my futon and looked over at him. He writhed on his own futon, flailing out with his arms, thrashing them to fend off his nightmares. His face contorted in agony, and he bolted upright, grasping for his sakabatõ and yelling. "AGGGHHH!"

His eyes flew open, and he breathed shallowly. I waited a second, and then slid off the edge of my small mattress, crawling across the floor to him. I placed the back of my hand on his forehead, and commented on what I felt. "You're warm."

I got up and went to the water basin, dipping one of the cloths into it and going back over to my master, carrying the basin with me. I settled cross-legged next to him, and wiped his brow with the wet cloth over his damp skin. "Dreams of battle?"

"Yes. I cannot avoid them."

"They're coming more frequently, aren't they?"

"_Hai_."

"Can you ever forget them?"

"Never. When does the Battôsai not have to be the Battôsai anymore? That is when I'll lose the night-terrors."

My hand stilled where it had been moving the washcloth against his face, neck and shoulders. "I could help you forget it, if just for awhile," I pressed. "A night, if only that."

"A night…away from the dreams."

"Away from the dreams," I agreed, "Just me. I'm here for you."

"Keep the dreams away," Battôsai whispered, and then drew me toward him, saying it more softly, like how a dying man gasps for his last taste of precious air. "Keep the dreams away."

A silent plea, voiced even so childishly, so innocently, and so hopelessly for the first time. How could I have resisted this outreach?

The basin lay discarded on the floor, and the wet cloth soon joined it. "You'll keep the dreams away?" he asked.

"I promise. With all my heart and soul." It's so easy to give to one such as he who is fearless in the day and as frightened as a child at night by his own personal demons.

"Your body is my temple." His lips pressed against my skin. "And I am your reverent pupil."

I woke up the next morning, smiling without a reason even before I opened my eyes to remind me where I was. Rolling onto my stomach, I propped my chin up with my hands, curling my fingers around the base of my chin and planting my elbows on the mattress as I smiled over at Battôsai. His clear blue eyes were open, and regarding me carefully as I yawned widely, covering my mouth with a hand.

"Mmm. _Ohayõ_. Consider yourself lucky, Hitokiri Battôsai. Most men wake up to find me long gone into the night before they awake."

Battôsai smiled back at me and stretched his arms above his head, and then settled back down. "_Ohayõ_. Then I must be very lucky indeed to see you next to me."

I flushed a bit under my cool skin, flustered by the sincere comment that fell so easily off the Hitokiri's tongue and to my ears with grace. Here lay a true man by my side, strong and gentle, with all the integrity and honor to say something such as that and have it touch me, me who had thought I had heard every line ever fed to a woman. I looked at him without saying a word, in awe to have found the real thing beside me.

Battôsai nudged me awake. "Sachi-chan, come. We must leave."

"Leave?" I asked sleepily. "Why?"

"Rebels are coming. There is no time. We must run."

I sat upright, reaching in the darkness for my yukata. Himura handed it to me, and I quickly wrapped it on and tied it with my obi. "I have nothing I need to bring," I said, standing.

"Good. We must go now."

I never thought I would be leaving the inn like this, where I had lived for the past year, in the darkness of the night, creeping like shadows hand-in-hand with a hitokiri down the stairs and out the back door, through the garden that had been my haven, and into the deep forest.

We kept pace, silent as ghosts, our dark clothing blending into the trees. If anything, what worried me most was our vibrant red and gold hair and our jewel-bright eyes, blue and green. But he was not a hitokiri for nothing, and I was not a daughter-of-the-night in vain.

Finally, after a few hours of running, Himura stopped suddenly, and listened. I pressed an ear to the ground, and heard the distant vibrations of many running feet growing steadily closer. I straightened up and looked at Battôsai, fear in my eyes.

"Run," he whispered. "That way, a five-day journey to Edo if you travel all day and night."

"No," I replied stubbornly. "I won't leave you."

"If you stay, I can't protect you and fight them at the same time. I can either protect you, and get captured and killed, which is the same as getting you captured, or I can defeat them, and come after you. It's your choice, _bijin_."

He saw in my eyes reflected the choice I made. Even though I was skilled, we only had one sword, and it was a sakabatõ at that. We embraced quickly, and I held onto him tightly, never wanting to let go. But through the trees the sounds of voices were starting to become clear, and he thrust me away.

"Go."

I took one last look at Hitokiri Battôsai as I walked backward, and we kept each other's gaze until I turned to run, and he turned to face the oncoming rebels who immerged from the forest.

Hitokiri Battôsai stood still as the men appeared between the trees, the distant moonlight shining off their swords at their sides. Forming a circle around him, they waited for his first move.

"Himura Battôsai, you are surrounded by our men, alone in the forest in the dark of night. You are quite alone, seeing as the young woman you were with," the man paused in his speech, and smiled slowly at his friends around them as they grinned back. "Seeing as the young woman you were with, has been…" He continued, and then paused. As if on cue, a terrified scream cut the night air, and then was abruptly cut off. The night air was silent for a moment. No where dared to move or speak. "…Has been executed."

Battôsai's eyes narrowed and seemed to glow in rage. "You lie," he spat. "All you speak are lies of trickery."

"No, I assure, I'm very much telling the truth."

The two men glared at each other for a second, the silence between them taunt with rage and hatred.

"Then, if you speak the truth, I shall kill you all to make up for what you have taken from me."

The sound of steel being drawn echoed through the trees.

Pounding through the trees, I prayed to Amaterasu and the _kami_ to protect Himura, and I as well. The sound of battle and steel-on-steel behind me made me want to turn around and run back, but I knew there was nothing I could do to help other then follow Himura's orders and run to keep safe.

I fled those five days until I got to Edo, like I was instructed. And once there, I waited a slow and painful year for my Hitokiri to meet me. But he never came. Cherry blossoms fell, snow came, then the cherry blossoms budded and blossomed again, but still, no red-haired man appeared for me. My heart wept.


	2. Act Two: All Roads Lead to Kenshin

Act Two: All Roads Lead to Kenshin

I stood at the doors of the dojo marked Kamiya Kasshin-Ryû Kenjustu on the board by the gate. Raising a hand, I rapped sharply against the wood, worn smooth by the knuckles of various people over time. When no one came right away, I stood back from the door and waited patiently until I heard footsteps coming, and the door opened a small way until a spiky black-haired head was stuck out. I gave the man a hesitant finger-wave, and he opened the door wider, shoving his shoulders through it and leaning on the doorframe. "_Hai_? What do you want?"

"Is a man by the name of Himura Kenshin here? Also known as Hitokiri Battôsai?" I asked him carefully.

"Yes. Who's asking?"

"An old friend who knew him as Hitokiri. May I see him?"

The tall black-hired man looked me over quickly. "What's your name?" he asked finally.

"Shinrin Sachi," I answered, lifting my chin.

"Mmm," he responded. "You can call me Sano, for now."

I bowed slightly, placing my hands on my knees. "Sano," He dipped his head at me in return, and then swung the door open. "Follow me. Kenshin's in the dojo."

We walked through the open courtyard, past a well and a toilet and bathhouse. I looked around, aware of my surroundings, but also keeping up with Sano, who turned to make sure I was behind him and following periodically. He stopped and pointed to the porch of the dojo, and a mess of flame-red hair. "There he is," he said to me, and then shouting across to the figure, "Hey! Kenshin! Someone's here to see you!"

Battôsai's hand was under his chin, propping it up, and his back was to us, engrossed in a game of checkers with a girl who was both a few inches taller and a few years younger then myself. She looked past his shoulder at Sano and I, and regarded me with a mixture of fascination and worry. Battôsai still didn't turn.

Clearing my throat gently, I called out. "Hitokiri. It's been quite awhile."

I watched his back stiffen, and Himura suddenly whirled around, and fell to the porch's floor in an extreme bow, his head touching the floor. He kowtowed to me for a brief second, and then leapt up, jumping the steps of the porch and running across the yard to where I stood with Sano. "Sachi."

He ran straight into me, knocking me off balance, and I laughed as I flung my arms around his neck. Battôsai wrapped his arms around me to catch me, and lifted me upright again. He was smiling like a child, eyes wide and blue and clear as a perfect summer sky. But looking back into them, my smile faltered for a moment, and I buried my face against his neck so that he nor the others could see my face. He held onto me tighter, and closed his eyes, kissing my forehead gently. We both sighed, and very slowly, our breathing shifted into time with one another's. "I've waited so long," I whispered, and he nodded.

"As this one has as well. This one thought you were dead."

"I thought you had disappeared."

"This one did, for awhile, for which this one will be eternally sorry for causing you any pain during that time."

Kaoru stood on the porch, having risen in shock the instant Kenshin had hit the ground in kowtow. She watched as the pair in the courtyard clung to each other, like a man in the desert clings to his mirage of water. Slowly, her heart settled into the pit of her stomach as they whispered in discernable tones to each other. She exchanged shocked looks with Sano, who had stepped back to give the two of them room.

"Who is she?" she mouthed to him, and he shrugged back in response.

Kenshin finally let go of the strange girl, and stepped back, still with an arm over her shoulder. She half leaned against him, and half stood on her own, as if not quite sure what she felt. The look of relief and weariness on her dainty yet strong face was more then enough to speak for her.

"Kaoru-dono, Sano, this is Shinrin Sachi. She'll be staying here, with us."

Kaoru's heart plunged further with Kenshin's words.

Kaoru tip-toed down the hallway to the new girl's room, beside Megumi's. She carefully slipped the door open, not making any sound. Looking in, she saw the room was empty, and that the bed hadn't even been slept it. Her blood boiling, she slammed the screen door shut with a _bang_, and stalked back down the hallway in the direction of Kenshin's own room. "That vixen," she muttered through gritted teeth. "Not even here a _day_ and she's already in Kenshin's bedroom. I'll get through to her!"

Sano's voice floated out from the darkness behind her. "Did it ever occur to you that she might belong in there?" he asked her. "And furthermore, eavesdropping isn't very lady-like. Not that you ever were, though."

Kaoru snarled and spun around to face him. "And creeping up on people in the dark isn't very mature either! Besides, this is my house, so I should know what's going on in it! I'm not _eavesdropping_!"

"Then what do you call pressing an ear to people's walls to hear what's being said inside?"

"…Gathering information!" she insisted. Sano chuckled.

"Fine. Whatever you say. Just be careful, Kaoru. If Kenshin or Sachi catch you listening to them, they won't be very happy. They have a lot to talk about."

Kaoru's chin wobbled threateningly. "But-but-but-but-but…she shows up today, and she's all over him, and now they're _alone_ in his _bedroom_ _ALL NIGHT_!!!"

Sano looked down at the hysterical girl with a look of scorn and condescension. "Correction. _THEY _were all over _EACH OTHER_. Kaoru, did you ever think that maybe she _belongs_ in there?"

"SHE DOESN'T BELONG IN THERE!!!"

The voices inside the bedroom hushed, and Sano threw a hand over the yelling Kaoru's mouth. "Shhh!" he hissed at her. "Idiot! Be quiet! Do you WANT them to come out here?"

She shook her head 'no' frantically under his hand, eyes wide as they stared through the screen of the bedroom, back-lit with a lantern. The two figures sitting on the futon had gone rigid, turning their heads simultaneously to the door. For a long minute, neither Sano nor Kaoru dared to breathe.

Finally, the heads turned back, and their postures relaxed. The two outside the doorway let out a low breath in relief. "Ok, now, I'm taking you away from here before you really _do_ get caught," Sano insisted, and dragged a resisting Kaoru away from the dimly lit bedroom, back down the hall to her own, and threw her in, shutting the door behind her and bolting it from the outside. "Sweet dreams," he chuckled at the door as Kaoru's muffled curses and thuds of things hitting the sturdy wood met his ears.

Grinning widely to himself, he walked back down the hall to his room, pausing only for a second outside the lit bedroom to watch as Kenshin touched the new girl's face. 'Or rather,' Sano thought, 'Should that be the 'old girl's' face?' Shaking his head, he tore his attention away and went into his own room, leaving the two to their privacy.

"I didn't know what had happened to you. I waited here, in Tokyo, for a year for you to catch up with me, but you never came. So eventually, I went back to the inn. Tengai was glad to see me, of course, seeing as the profits had gone down after I'd left. And gradually, I began to hear rumors of the red-haired Hitokiri Battôsai in Tokyo. I figured it could have only been you," I said, with a small sad smile to Himura where he sat across from me.

"They told this one that you had died, that night in the forest. That you had been caught by a group ahead, and were killed on the spot. They obviously lied, but at the time, this one was so furious that I killed them all in rage. Later, they captured me, as I was travelling to meet you here, to see if they had been lying, or if you had actually escaped somehow. I went to prison for a year."

Battôsai's face clouded over, his eyes becoming dark and narrow, the way I had known them for so long so many years ago. But then they brightened again, and he looked up. "Well. Now we know our good fortune that we've found each other again."

I frowned a bit, tilting my head to the side to look at him who I once knew so well. "Hitokiri. You've changed much."

His eyes softened gently, and he smiled sadly at me. "_Bijin_," he said, reaching out to me. I caught his hand, and folded his fingers shut, turning it over to kiss his knuckles. I placed it on my face, my hand on top of his, and he regarded me solemnly. " 'Hitokiri Battôsai' has no place here now. Now, this one is but Rurouni Kenshin, the wanderer."

"Your hair is lower now."

"_Hai_. The high ponytail of a Hitokiri has no place on a simple rurouni."

I nodded, letting his hand drop from my face. "If I can fall in love with you once, I can fall in love with the same person twice, no matter how different you are, or what you chose to hide," I said strongly, watching his face as he looked at me. "You're more child-like now. Innocent and cheerful. You say 'this one' instead of 'I' or 'me'. But you can't hide all from me, Himura. You're still as passionate about justice and fighting as you once were when I knew you."

"Kenshin, please. And you know this one still, as you show by your astute observations. You have gotten more defensive and careful as the world around you has changed, changing you as you adapt. This one would dearly like to see you laugh in joy again, or smile without the shadows behind your green eyes." He reached out and touched the corner of my left eye, and I blinked.

"Time changes all, as it heals all wounds, Kenshin."

"Time doesn't heal all wounds, as this one is afraid he caused you wounds."

I hesitated, wondering what to say, if I could be as cruel as I felt. But those steady blue eyes bored into me, and I only could nod, and offer a small explanation. "Yes. You did hurt me. I had hope, and then it was taken away from me as I had to return back to where I had come from, alone again."

My Hitokiri leaned forward, and embraced me, nudging me forward into him. I laid my head on his shoulder and blinked slowly as he smoothed my hair down and whispered to me. "I never would have wished to hurt you in any way, _bijin_. You must believe me."

"I do, Himura."

His eyes flicked from their usual purple and blue to the gold and red that I had seen him wear years ago. The assassin eyes fell on me, and I stood transfixed. It was like being caught standing half in a rainstorm, and half out, with one side of your body went and cold and the other wondering at the sunlight. Caught in limbo between Hitokiri Battôsai and Rurouni Kenshin, I realized it was a lot like that mystical half-rainstorm. Lightening flashed close-by in warning of danger, but the sun was still smiling down on you. I knew as long as I was there, Battôsai could never truly be the Rurouni 'Kenshin'.

I walked out of the back porch of the dojo, stretching my arms above me head and loosening them, smiling slightly at both the perfect day and the sight before me.

Kenshin sat on a tree-truck, facing another tree-trunk with a block of wood precariously placed on it. It wobbled, and Kenshin's tongue was slightly stuck out the side of his mouth in concentration. Narrowing his eyes at the piece of wood, his hand reached down to his side and flashed out again, whipping his sakabatô out of it's sheath with stunning speed beyond what my eyes could watch. "No! NOT THAT!" I screeched, waving my hands 'no' across in front of my chest. Kaoru and Yahiko looked up quickly from the other end of the yard, where they were practicing with bokotu practice swords for one of Yahiko's lessons.

The sword flashed in the sunlight, and then two perfect halves of wood tumbled off the trunk. Kenshin smiled in delight, bending over to pick them up. Straightening up, he frowned at me, eyebrows furrowed. "Why-ever not?"

"_WHY_ are you chopping _WOOD_ with your _SAKABATÔ_?!" I asked, breathing fire as I rushed down the steps and grabbed the tree-trunk away from him, pulling it farther away so he couldn't reach for another block of wood to chop. Leaning over the trunk with my hands planted on either side of it, I waited for his answer as he blinked at me.

"What else is it good for? Wood needs to be chopped. I'm chopping it."

I buried my hands in my hair. "That's it, I give up. Fine, ruin your sword. See if I care when you go to draw it and your foe laughs at you because it's so dull from splitting endless blocks of wood. Try telling him warm baths and hot meals are good while he cuts you down."

Yahiko looked over at Kaoru. "She does have a point. It's a sword, not an axe."

"I never asked him to use it."

Kenshin turned back to look at me. "No one's laughed at it yet."

"Wait a few years of slaving away over the chopping block, and then see," I said mulishly, crossing my arms.

"This one doesn't plan on chopping wood for Kaoru-dono forever," he protested.

"Why don't you use it how it's meant to be used?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know. Maybe, a lesson," I wheedled, tilting my head and smiling innocently. His face went flat.

"You've been planning this."

"Just a teensy bit," I admitted.

"Fine. But I don't usually do this. Only for you. I must do what I promised to."

Kaoru's voice rang in my ear, and I fell sideways in shock at the sound of it.

"KENSHIN TAUGHT YOU?! I thought he didn't teach students!" she shouted furiously. I rose up again, rubbing at my ear.

"Ow. My eardrum."

Kenshin smiled, reaching out to pat me on the head in sympathy. "I know. Powerful lungs," he said in an undertone.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Kenshin was caught off-guard, his eyes bugging, and then smiled sheepishly.

"This one only taught her a little, a long while ago. But it will be good to get a sword in her hand again. May we borrow some bokokus?"

"I…what…sure," she finally sputtered, pointing into the dojo. "Hanging on the wall in the training hall."

Kenshin and I both stood in the dojo's yard in front of the porch, both of us holding a bokuto, a wooden sword used for kendô. "Do you need the flat side to be marked for you as it would be on a sakabatõ?" Kenshin asked me gently.

"Of course not. Don't be silly," I protested sharply, tightening my grip on the wooden handle.

"Good. This one hoped you would not have forgotten already."

I snorted out my nose, very unladylike. "When pigs fly," I retorted, and Kenshin smiled.

"Now, show this one what you have not forgotten," he requested, and we both sunk into an on-guard defensive position.

Kenshin let me initiate the first move, as any generous sensei will wait until his pupil is ready, or he thinks his pupil is ready. But once you start, they are merciless. Kenshin was not one to play down his skill, even when just sparring. As I remembered, and soon found out again, I had a long way to go before I was at his level. I frequently found myself at the end of his practice bokuto, and was forced to drop mine in surrender.

Sweating from the exercise, I blinked my eyes, and then opened them to find that in that split-second, Kenshin had cornered me in the small space between the porch end and the bath house. I looked up quickly as he paused, giving me a second to gather myself. Overhead, I spotted the overhanging end beam from the porch roof.

Without thinking, I jumped up, reaching for the beam. Grabbing it, I curled up, around it, and then dropped down on the other side of Kenshin, holding my bokuto at his back. He whirled, faster then my eye could see, but my hand followed what my eye could not.

My bokuto clashed with his, and suddenly, it flew out of his hands and through the air, landing twenty feet away, sticking out of the ground, point-first. "Oro?" Kenshin asked, staring at it almost cross-eyed.

We both gaped at it for a few moments, just staring at it, not saying anything. Finally, Kenshin laughed, and went over to retrieve it, pulling it out of the ground and wiping it across his wide pant legs.

"You surprised this one. This one always thought that women would make great fighters because they often can act faster then a man can react. Well done, Sachi-san," he praised, smiling at me with happiness in his eyes as he beamed at me.

My mouth still open, I gestured with my free hand to him and the bokuto. "But I…how…what?"

"You seem to not have forgotten much, _bijin_."

"Whew," I whistled, and then we went pack to sparring without rest.

More jaws hung open on the porch. "Did she…she just…didn't she?!" Kaoru asked Sano, who was still staring bug-eyed at the two on the courtyard.

"She did. She just disarmed Kenshin!"

"HOW?!"

Sano pointed at her as she defended herself from Kenshin. "She's a good sword-hand at her own level, but against Kenshin, it's amazing that she achieved what she did. I'd say it was just sheer luck, but when you watch her, you see a few things. She's more 'covered' then most fighters. Because she's used to sparring with people more skilled then she is, she fights defensively, not striking, but blocking, which takes less energy. Also, she doesn't give her moves away with her body movement, making her dangerously more surprising."

"She's fast too."

Sano turned to look at Kaoru. "You're the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryû trainer. You should know what makes her that quick."

"Training with people like Kenshin, who are superhumanly fast makes her reflexes faster. If you are ever to beat them, you have to be a step ahead of them."

"Right."

Megumi and Yahiko joined them. "Did you just see that?!" Yahiko demanded. Sano and Kaoru nodded their heads.

Megumi looked on in awe. "She's amazing," she breathed.

"No," Sano corrected, "She's learning."

Dinner wasn't much of a formal affair, other then we all gathered and sat around the low table. Megumi had made the rice balls and miso soup, since Kaoru no longer seemed to have that task, being one-upped by the better cook.

We all sat quietly and ate, small talk being exchanged between everyone. Megumi was more civil toward me then Kaoru, but I didn't expect any less. Kaoru had more to lose to me then the aloof doctor's daughter.

Kenshin reached for his cup and brought it to his lips, then paused, looking down his nose into it. Looking into my own cup, I realized no one had poured the tea. Reaching for Kenshin's cup, I took it from him. "I'll pour the tea," I offered quietly. I picked up the pot of green tea, and tilted it expertly, pouring it daintily, and then stopping the flow cleanly with a quick tilt back up to center. I followed suit with everyone else's cups, and then paused when I got to mine, looking up at the staring faces. "What?" I asked quizzically.

"You pour like a geisha," Sano explained. I smiled at the rooster-haired punk.

"Ah. Yes. It would make sense then, as I lived in an okiya for quite awhile."

Sano and Kaoru both hit the proverbial roof, leaping up and landing again with thuds. "_YOU_ were a _GEISHA_?!"

Sipping tea delicately, I took a moment to respond. "No, actually. I ran away from the okiya and became a prostitute."

Megumi turned to look at Kenshin, who blushed a faint red. Yahiko turned to me so fast I expected his head to whiplash. And Kaoru and Sano hit the roof for a second time, as I expected. "_YOU_ were a _PROSTITTUTE?!"_

"Mmm. Yes. I was for some time."

Kaoru practically jumped down Kenshin's throat as she yelled at him, leaping for him with a fist raised. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN A BROTHEL?!"

Meanwhile, Yahiko was almost crawling across the table to get to me. "Where were you a prostitute? Did you know a woman named Myõjin Yumisaga?! Did you know my mother?!"

I laughed cheerfully, raising one hand palm out and flat to stop Yahiko's chatter, and reached out with my other hand and snagged Kaoru by her kimono collar before she could pummel Kenshin into oblivion. He sat up again from where he had been huddled, and rubbed his head sorely.

"No, Yahiko, I didn't know your mother. She must have been at another place. And no, Kenshin was never at a brothel, Kaoru, so calm down. I worked from a roadside inn and tavern. Furthermore, what is so bad about being a prostitute?"

Dead silence met my eyes, and everyone stared down, not meeting my gaze. "Oh, really, all of you. It's a _JOB_. It's a way a slave girl can support herself, and even eventually buy her own freedom. Megumi. From what I've heard of you, you concocted opium for a gang. Without knowing it, of course," I added hastily as she looked up sharply at me. "Yahiko, you were a pick-pocket. Sano, you are a fight-merchant for hire. Really. None of you have the clean conscious to judge others from their past." I stood sharply and looked down, at Kaoru. "Except maybe Kaoru-dono. If you'll excuse me," I asked stiffly, bowing and walking from the room.

I stalked out onto the porch and down into the yard. I heard Kenshin scrambling after me, and the shoji screen doors shut behind him again as he followed me outside. He stopped on the porch, and I turned back to him. "What is the meaning of this, Battôsai? Your new friends of their own unclean pasts judge me, and even you yourself, the emperor of the dark past, don't raise either hand or voice to help me? I thought you were more of a man then that. You _used_ to be. Now I see you aren't anymore." Kenshin placed a hand on the porch railing, and without waiting for his answer, I turned away again and walked for the gate doors.

His voice stopped me as I reached for the handle of a door. As it always had, it made me stop and listen to him. "Megumi who you made mad also saved people's lives, even Yahiko's. As for himself, he converted from his past to become the apprentice his samurai father would be proud of. Sano stopped fighting the past of his hatred for the loyalists, and even joined this one in my fight. And you, who was once the prize blossom of the Green Dragon Inn, have become the strong-hearted and independent woman this one sees before him."

I sighed and rested my forehead against the door panel, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. I straightened again, and faced him. "I was wrong to say what I did to them. They have taken me in, and I was rude to them all. I'll apologize and ask for their forgiveness."

Kenshin smiled that innocent little-boy smile at me. "They already forgive you. They all know what it's like to bite at the hand that offers them help. Come back inside, _bijin_." Even now, after my outburst of temper, he could call me 'Beautiful One.' It never ceased to amaze me at the generosity in Himura's heart, either as a Hitokiri or a Rurouni.

He reached hand out to me, and I walked back across the yard and up the stairs, taking it in my own. He squeezed it gently. "Shall we go back in now?" he asked gently, and I nodded, not trusting my tongue.

Leading me back in, and shutting the door behind us, we stood in front of the seated _Kenshingumi_, and I let go of Kenshin's hand so I could deeply bow down to knee height to them all.

"I'm very deeply sorry for my outburst aimed at all of you. I won't allow it to happen again."

There was no sound for a moment, and then they all rose and came over to me, holding out a hand to help me rise up again, or offering a smile. It seemed all was forgiven. Life in this dojo seemed to flow from outburst to outburst, and none of it was taken seriously. Kenshin had found a group of people all as loyal and generous as he was. And I seemed to be the latest acquisition to their small group of misfits and reformers.


	3. Behind Hidden Eyes

Act Three: Behind Hidden Eyes

Kenshin looked across the yard to the golden-haired girl who stood side-by-side with Yahiko, watching his hands carefully as he swung his shinai. The second they slipped, she stopped him, correcting his grip by sliding it up or down a bit, and getting him to relax in his wrist so he could turn them more easily.

"I thought the ugly was my teacher," Yahiko said as Sachi stopped him yet again and fluttered her fingertips from his hand to father up the hilt.

"Up here, and tighter, so it doesn't slip, but loose enough to move your wrist," she said levelly. "And yes, Kaoru-dono is your teacher, but even when you're just out swinging a shinai, you should want people to give you tips so you become better."

She looked up from where she knelt to his eyes. "And I know enough about grips to teach. They were my biggest problem. Still are," she added with a frown.

"Really?"

"Ask Kenshin sometime. Now, swing." The boy grumbled about bossy women, but did what she said.

Standing to the side, Sachi watched him with sharp eyes as she followed his motions with her gaze, watching for mistakes. Her face was so serious that Kenshin felt himself frown in thought. The angle her face was at and the tilt of her head was a view that he knew well, and he was used to seeing a glowing smile in place and her green eyes crinkled in happiness as she laughed at something. But this new face was still as a stone and her laughter was hidden behind sad eyes that watched everyone and everything without comment.

He sighed, running his red bangs back from his eyes. He had gotten so fond of the Sachi that a glow followed wherever she went, but looking at her now, only glimmers of that innocence would shine through during rare moments. No one would ever guess that she had been the mischievous girl whose banter had been sought from almost every man to walk past her.

Somewhere, she had had her innocence stolen from her, and she now walked past all the faces and unfamiliar places without so much as a glance of curiosity. It was as if her soul had aged a lifetime and left her behind.

Feeling his gaze on her, she turned up to the porch, catching his frown before he could erase it from his face. She gave him a concerned face, and then mimed a smile, indicating he should do the same. He did, and she genuinely smiled back at him, the glimmer around her returning for a minute.

'If there is one thing in my power to do, I will find some way to return her smile, I swear to that,' he promised to himself, turning back into the dojo to go find Kaoru and help with breakfast.

I tiptoed up behind Kenshin where he stood in front of Kaoru, talking earnestly with her, his back to me. Smiling mischievously, I took a few light running steps that prepared me for a leap up onto his back. As I fell through the air, I saw his back muscles tighten, and he ducked down quickly, as if aware someone was coming at him.

Flying over his crouched shoulders, I saw Kaoru's open-mouthed face in front of me instead of a solid back. "Wahh…AHHH!"

I blinked, and a rapidly moving fist was coming into focus between my eyes. _Whack_.

_Thump_.

"Ohhh…" I rubbed at my face, sprawled out on my back on the ground.

"Sachi-san! Are you alright?" I looked up at Kenshin.

"It's not like I was going to _attack_ you! I wanted to HUG YOU!"

Kaoru stopped down the hallway from me and turned back, her eyes dark and her voice raised spiteful. "Why? Why are you 'Beautiful One' to him, and I am just Kaoru-dono?"

I turned to stare at her, my eyebrows furrowed and frowning a bit at her sudden outburst. We looked each other full in the face for a moment, and then she lowered her gaze. "Right. Stupid question."

Standing my ground, I regarded her carefully. Someone with a wounded heart is like a wounded animal, most dangerous when cornered. I picked my words carefully, saying them slowly but sincerely. I never wanted to upset her, but unintentionally, I seemed to be doing so just by being there.

"I admire you, you know, Kaoru. We both fell in love with the same man. Only, you fell for the side that he seems to be now. I still have yet to learn to love that side of him. Maybe you'll understand someday that what you see now is based on the past between two people." I sighed and raked a hand through my hair, either in impatience or worry, I don't know which.

"I'm still not sure where we stand now. I know where we were, but I don't know what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not allowed to do now. That's the hard thing with Kenshin. He never lets you know what he'll tolerate and what he won't by saying it out-loud."

I leaned against the wall suddenly, digging my fingers through my hair and into my scalp. What was I doing, voicing my most-inner thoughts and concerns with this girl? Had I completely lost it, with all the pent-up worry and fear that I didn't belong here with Kenshin anymore? Was my time with him over? _Our_ time over? For someone who only wanted to forget his past, having a deeply-seated member of it show up again certainly wasn't burying it for him.

Looking up again, I saw Kaoru was staring at me like some interesting thing under a microscope. I gritted my teeth and silently berated myself for spilling all the words and thoughts out. "Never mind," I told her, and pushed myself off the wall, walking away quickly.

"Wait!" Kaoru called after me, and I stopped, turning to her in exasperation.

"What now?"

"If you were a prostitute…does that mean that Kenshin…?" She trailed off, and I laughed at the direction her question was heading.

"No. Kenshin hasn't changed that much. He didn't use slaves. I was 'sold' to him as a gift from some of his other hitokiri friends. And though neither of us were really expecting it, our relationship was based mainly on a psychical level after awhile," I mused to Kaoru, and then chuckled and flapped my hands 'no' as her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped into an 'O'. "It's not like he was a carnivorous beast," I said hastily as I almost could see her thoughts floating above her head of an amorous Kenshin ravishing me. "I provided a release from his thoughts, and he gave me someone to trust."

Kaoru's eyes suddenly shifted past me, and widened. "Eep," she cheeped. I blinked in a second of concentration and then smiled, reading the chi as a hand descended on my shoulder.

"Hello."

"Hello," I said, turning into Kenshin's arm and lifting my head to meet his kiss in greeting. Kaoru blushed profusely and looked down, clenching and unclenching her hands. Taking note of the other girl's actions, I quickly separated myself from Kenshin, who looked at me in question. I gently inclined my head to the jealous onlooker, and he nodded almost imperceptibly.

Going ahead of me, Kenshin trotted down the hall, and as I passed Kaoru, I laid a hand on her shoulder. "No offense meant, Kaoru. Don't take it personally." She nodded.

I stood in Kenshin's doorway, leaning lightly on the frame as I rapped on it gently to alert him to my presence. Even for one such as he, sometimes those that you are closest to never register in your mind because you are so used to them being by you.

He looked up quickly, and smiled with familiarity when he saw me. "What is it, _bijin_?" he asked, standing from beside the folded futon and bedding and padding over to me.

Waving him away from crossing to me, I walked over and knelt back down at the futon. Looking up at him, I pointed down at the assembled things. "May I help you?" I asked, and he followed my lead, coming back over to the bedding and kneeling again.

"Oro?"

"May I help you with the bed?"

"Surely. This one never turns away a helping hand." He smiled at me, eyes bright blue. I busied myself with the unrolling of the bedding, and then we both dragged the futon out and unfolded it in the center of the tatami floor.

Avoiding his eyes, I started hesitantly to talk as we worked. "Kenshin?"

"Yes, Sachi-chan?"

"…I've been thinking."

"This one noticed how quiet you've been lately, even for you. I've caught you staring out as if searching the deepest corners of your heart and mind."

"I guess I have been, in a way."

I stopped talking for a few minutes after the futon was set to be slept on, and shook out the covers over it, standing above the head of it and laying out the comforter, smoothing the edges down slowly as I phrased what I wanted to say.

He may have noticed, but Kenshin was ready to wait patiently until I was ready to say what I had to. He walked over and shut the door, if only subconsciously signifying that whatever happened from now on was private, for behind closed doors. I leaned back against the wall, as seemed to be my tried-and-true habit for trying to blend into uncomfortable situations.

I watched as he undid his obi, and shrugged out of his gi , folding it and laying it down on top of the simple dresser in the corner. Smiling slightly at him, I felt myself soften as I watched the neatness of the Hitokiri. For such a man, the rigid rule of his self seemed to me, endearing as a trait, if not a bit daunting when you felt common and undisciplined in his presence.

He finally sat on the edge of his futon and patted the mattress before him, asking me to come sit with him. I obeyed, and settled down on the edge across from him cross-legged, my hands folded in my lap. He let me sit in silence for a moment before he prodded.

"This one senses you have something you want to talk to him about."

I nodded, and continued to look down, not wanting to meet the bright indigo gaze that would separate my words from my tongue.

"…And that you are having a hard time deciding what to say?"

This earned him another nod. "Sachi-san, you must know that nothing you say will anger this one, or make him feel less for you."

"I just wonder if you're really happy with me being here again, in your life. We were so long apart that it makes me wonder if we out-grew each other. The man that I knew has changed into someone else a bit more innocent, and the girl you knew has turned into someone more wary."

"I haven't changed that much, Sachi. The man you knew is still living in me, so you haven't lost all," Kenshin said, reaching to tuck a strand of stray hair out my eyes. "But I would wish that you might have that spark of spirit in your eyes again. What happened to you, _bijin_, to make one such as you so hard and sad?" His voice dropped lower, more worried and cautious.

"One day I would like to tell you, Kenshin, but that is a tale for another time when I am ready to tell you."

"Then I shall have to wait until then. For now, would you care to share my bed? If I remember correctly, you get very cold on your own on cold winter nights, no?" he said, a slight smile creeping in his voice and the corners of his eyes.

I smiled back, grateful for the invitation. His saying it made me dispel some of the earlier troubling thoughts I had had on his thoughts of me here. "There is the girl and her quick smile I used to know," Kenshin said, as I undid my yukata, and he lifted up the covers so I could join him under in the warmth. Tilting up his head, he blew out the lantern light above the futon. The room plunged into darkness, and I snuggled up to his side as he passed an arm around my waist to hold me in my sleep.

I blinked my eyes open, and the blurry room came into focus slowly. I looked over at the other side of the futon and blinked in surprise. Kenshin wasn't there. I placed my hand on where he had been, and found to my surprise that the spot was still warm from his body. I moved my hand from the bed to beneath my pillow, and pushed myself up.

Working purely out of habit, I rolled off the futon, and then stood up, reaching for my yukata. Tying my obi with a loose hand, I walked to the door and slid it open, treading softly out of the house and toward the bathhouse. As I walked, my sleep-addled mind was already giving me orders. Get firewood. Make a fire, wait for the bath to heat. Take bath. Work from there. Life is simple for me in the mornings.

I opened the bathhouse door, expecting a cold bath lying in wait for the next eager bather. What I got, however, was a warm and inviting bath awaiting me. A fire was smoldering gently beneath it, and the water was unleashing small amounts of steam rising off the top.

Frowning, I turned around in the doorway, still holding onto the edge of the opened door, wondering who else was up this early. Looking over my shoulder, my eyes found Kenshin standing by the woodpile, sakabatõ over his shoulder, smiling at me.

I smiled back, placing my palms on my thighs and bowing to him in thanks. "Domo, Himura," I whispered to myself as he turned away and went back into the house. Taking this as him leaving to let me bathe, I walked through the bathhouse door and the waiting warm bath, prepared out of kindness by someone very thoughtful for me.

Once I was in the tub, however, the realization that he remembered that I was the one who couldn't function without a bath first thing in the mornings after almost six years. My elbow that rested on the side of the tub slipped, and my chin that sat in the hand that was no longer there slipped and banged into the rim.

"Oh!"

I stood in the middle of a marketplace street, watching the faces of people as they rushed by me, jostling each other and running into me, muttering apologies as they pushed on. Their blank faces reflected in my eyes, and the swirling colors and smells of the food vendors hanging in the air. I felt so small and insignificant, just a green-eyed orphan from the country playing dress-up with the kendô suit and katana of another, stronger person draping on and against me.

Brushing my fingers against the familiar hilt and tracing the waxed ribbon that wound around it, it reassured me as I pressed on, once again joining the crowd, blending and bleeding into the scenery. Was I really just another player in this busy city, a puppet of daily activity, losing myself to the grind?

In the market, no one noticed me against the crowd, as if I were invisible. And at the Kamiya dojo, I wasn't allowed to live the home-life I wanted with Kenshin as long as I resided in Kaoru's house out of her good grace. I didn't want to make ripples in the water. I just wanted to be someone again.

"Hey, you!" Angry voices. I turned around, seeing where they were coming from. An angry-looking police officer was running toward me, finger pointed menacingly at me. "Yes, you with the sword! You're violating the sword-banning act! Get back here!"

I turned on my heels and ran, threading my way through the crowd. So much for wanting to be noticed. This wasn't exactly what I had had in mind.

From then on, the katana stayed in the dojo, and a bokotu replaced it. It wasn't the same, but it was better then getting noticed the wrong way and ending up at the wrong end of a sword-officer's own blade.

I ran down the hall of the dojo and to the training hall, where I knew everyone would be, holding up the pant-legs of my hakama. One of my pant-legs slipped from my grasp and I tripped on the end, sliding past the door as cloth and waxed floorboards met. Quickly grabbing onto the doorframe as I slid by and hauling myself forward again, I regained my balance, lifting the pant-leg back up and throwing the door open, back-tracking around the corner into the hall.

Panting, I hung from the doorframe. "Kenshin. You're wanted in the town. A man came by and said something about a man with a katana. He's violating the sword-banning act, and it's not a sakabatõ."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed dangerously and he stood up. "The police?" he asked, and I shook my head, gasping for more breath.

"He won't let them even get close to him. He draws the katana and threatens to use it."

"How long ago did you hear this?"

"The town's man came by just a minute ago. I ran straight back when I met him on the road."

"Then this one must go to town and find out what is going on."

I nodded, too out-of-breath to say anything. The others watched as Kenshin walked out of the room, and I stepped to the side to let him past. He reached out a hand and laid it on my forearm. "You did right, coming to this one, Sachi-san. I carry a sword to help those who need it, and if asked to come, I won't refuse to help. Don't worry that you did the wrong thing. What you did was the right thing."

"I just…I heard, and he asked…I couldn't say 'no' to him and just let you sit here. I figured you could do something to help them."

"This one will be back soon, after this issue is settled. Tell the others not to worry."

"I will."

"And don't you worry yourself."

"Who? Me? Never," I lied heroically, smiling at him. Kenshin shook his head at me.

"This one knows how you worry. But you like to hide it, because you think you shouldn't show concern. But this one will take it for you. It's a sweet gesture."

"Sweet?!" I hissed, and Kenshin backed away, holding his hands out to calm me down.

"Whoa…steady…I meant that in the best way possible! It's nice to have someone worry but try to hide it so they don't make you upset!"

"It's not like I doubt your skill, but it'd be irrational not to worry a little!"

Kenshin beat a hasty retreat from me, who entered the hall with the rest, breathing proverbial fire.

"Wow. It's not just only Kaoru who gets pissed," Sano commented, taking in my clenched fists.

I turned and glared at him. "I'm not this way a lot of the time, you know. In fact, this is outside of anything I usually am."

"The introvert becomes the extrovert," Sano said to Kaoru. "So what were you guys whispering about that got you so riled up, huh? First fight as a couple? He stole the covers last night?"

Kaoru put a hand up her mouth and her eyes widened as she watched my response, and Yahiko frowned. "Uh-oh. Now you did it, Sano."

I turned to face Sano, and he grinned at me. Smiling sweetly, I raised a fist and feinted left, and then punched right.

"OOMMFF!"

"That's what you get for teasing me! Idiot!"

"Ow! Witch!"

"Birdhead!"

"Geisha drop-out!"

"Numbskull!"

"Vixen!"

"Hey, that's word-stealing from Kaoru! No fair!"

Yahiko turned and looked at Kaoru. "And I thought you were scary when you were mad, ugly. I like her a whole lot more when she's being all quiet and thoughtful. It's like seeing a female Kenshin turn Battôsai on us."

My ears caught the last comment and turned rapidly from Sano to Yahiko. "_What_ did you just say?" I demanded, stepping closer to him.

"Ahhh! _Bijin, bijin_, ok? _Bijin_! Why does it work when Kenshin says it, but not now? _Bijin_! Stop hurting me! _Bijin_!"

I walked up alongside Sano where he stood next to the well, peering down into it. "See anything interesting?" I asked him, leaning in to look for myself.

"No. Only water."

"Oh."

"Sachi, can I ask you something?"

"Sure Sano, what is it?" I asked, turning and hopping up onto the edge of the well, sitting on the ledge.

"What makes you so sure he wants you?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, and Sano repeated it.

"What makes you so sure that Kenshin still wants you?"

"His eyes. They say it for him," I said, my own eyes clouding over as I thought of the softness that could be found at moments in the Battôsai's assassin eyes.

"Why do you stay with Kenshin? I mean, I understand you guys had thing a few years ago, but now…why go through the trouble?"

"I don't understand…" I said, trailing off and wrinkling my forehead in question.

"Why do you put up with this? The questions; the rivalry. It's no secret that you and Kaoru aren't exactly friendly, and that you're worrying about where your place here with Kenshin is. Can I tell you something? Kenshin's only one guy. So why do you do it?"

"Because I know what I'm fighting for, " I said after a moment, looking out over the yard to the cherry trees and the wooden fence.

"You knew Battôsai, not Kenshin."

"Fair enough. But who are you to be judge, if you only know Sachi, and not who I really am? Who are you to say what I'm capable of?"

Sano stepped up before me where I sat on the well's wall, so that we were almost nose-to-nose. "Who are you really, then?"

"I'm summer rain beaded on a newly opened cherry blossom. I'm the silk ribbon that winds around the bases of the blades of katana, and doesn't get sliced. I'm both light and dark, innocent girl and jaded woman. I am Shinrin too, not just Sachi."

"You're long-winded too," Sano commented, and I clunked him over the head with my fist.

"Careful, Sano. I'm not Kaoru, but that doesn't mean I won't inflict a little pain."


	4. The Demon Lord

Act Four: The Demon Lord

"Miss."

The voice stopped me even before the feeling of other people's chi surrounding me made me stop and turn. I looked over my shoulder in question, raising a brow and hoisting my bag of miso higher. "Can I help you?" I inquired to the numerous men behind me, but pointed my gaze at the tall man on horseback with long black-hair that had spoken to me.

He smiled, and something in the slow and easy smile on the handsome yet cruel face triggered a flutter of a memory in the back of my mind. A whisper on a dark night, urgently sliding between a back fence, the sound of terror in a woman's voice. The low sobbing of others, and the smell of blood that hung in the air around a gray stone house. My blood ran cold, and the inquisitive smile on my face froze and disappeared.

"Do I have the pleasure of greeting the blossom of the Green Dragon Inn?" the man asked, leaning forward to rest his arms across the front of his high saddle.

I turned my head quickly away from him and his assembled men. "No. You have the wrong girl. I don't know who you speak of."

"That's funny. There aren't very many gold-haired, green-eyed European women in Tokyo. I thought for sure you were Shinrin Sachi from the roadside village of Atokae to the north."

I turned to look up at him for a last time, fire boiling behind my eyes and making my voice sharp. "My name might be Shinrin Sachi, sir, but the woman you speak of is long dead and gone."

He smiled like a cat and looked down to his men, who all grinned back up at him and chuckled. "Fine, then, Miss Shinrin. But I'll be around for awhile. Let me know if Sachi-_yabi_ decides to appear again."

I turned sharply and walked away, back to the vendor's booths, hoping to lose the man whose chi reeked of evil. This was something to file away in the back of my mind to watch out for, but not worry Kenshin about. If I couldn't handle my own past, who was I to force it onto him?

I stopped in front of a fish vendor, and waved him away as he began his pitch. He gave me an offended look and turned to another interested customer. I had just matched the face to a name. It was a name that I remembered from the low whispers in the women's dormitory at the Green Dragon, a name whispered during the nights when no moon hung in the sky, to match the blackness of the world outside. A name that had owned a residence down the road, that we were all frequently warned about. Mygomi Hishori. Slave trader and geisha master. And to those who sold their bodies for money, he was known as the Demon.

There had been an incident a few years back, after I had returned back to the Green Dragon. A young girl who had lived in the geisha house of Mygomi's had been beaten to death after she wasn't able to perform. The cruelty and seriousness of Mygomi's punishments served as a warning to any and all that allowed him to get his hands on them, or their service on his board.

The little hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I looked up from my revere into the black eyes of Hishori. Shivering, I turned away. I would have to be very careful. The Demon had his eyes on me.

Threading my way through the bustling marketplace, I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure that either Mygomi or one of his gang members weren't following me. Taking back alleys and shortcuts to be extremely sure I wasn't followed, I made my way back to the dojo, my heart race tripping nervously at a fast pace inside my chest.

_I am calm. At peace. I am still, like water on a spring morning. I am as pure as raindrops, and as true as a monk's flute song. My leg is…_falling asleep.

I squeezed my eyes shut again, tighter, and breathed in slowly, exhaling after a count of four. _Focus, grasshopper. Mediate to become one with yourself and your world. Clear your mind of the inconsequential. Float on the breeze, and free yourself from your weary body for a time…_

A rapid pounding of feet and an air current being broken raggedly near me made me snap an arm out, and I caught Yahiko by the back of his gi. Opening my eyes, I looked at him. "Going somewhere?"

"Lemme go!"

"I was mediating, and you broke my concentration. Now, tell me where you're off to in such a hurry."

"_YOU_ were _MEDIATING_?!"

"Why not? Of course I was. No one in their right mind would choose to sit on the well cover and just _zone out _unless they were mediating. What did you think I was doing? Waiting for someone to come and hand me a bucket so I could pull water up for them?"

"Oh."

"Yeah. 'Oh.' "

"I was going to the beef bowl shop. Wanna come?"

"It beats sitting here and letting my limbs fall asleep."

"We'll meet Kenshin and Kaoru and Sano there."

"Everyone?"

"Yeah. Even Megumi's coming," Yahiko added.

"Why the big group?" I asked, my interest piqued. Yahiko shrugged at me.

"Ugly said something about talking about something she's heard recently."

"Hmm," I said, frowning. "This could be interesting."

Yahiko and I slid into one of the more private back booths at the Akabeko beef bowl shop. Tae sighed. "I hope at least some of you are planning on paying," she said, glancing pointedly at Sano, and then at myself. I smiled weakly, spreading my hands palms out in an 'I'm sorry, but what can I do?' gesture. Kaoru glared at both the freeloader who frequently skipped out on his bills, and I, who would rather labor in the kitchens washing dishes in exchange for a meal that I couldn't pay for.

"We'll pay, and they'll pay us in labor later."

Sano and I stared at her with flat faces and small glares. "Fine."

"That's what you think…"

Kenshin and Megumi looked up with amused glances, and quietly smothered their laughs. I looked down at my side to find Yahiko's head already burrowed into a bowl of rice. I looked up, settling down cross-legged. "Yahiko said something about a meeting," I started, and then shot Kaoru a concerned look. "What's going on?"

The raccoon-girl cleared her throat. "Uh…well, it appears there are a couple things that we all need to talk about."

Kenshin raised his head up from his food. "Kaoru-dono, you best let this one explain this." She nodded consent, and he continued. "It seems as if a few yakuza gangs have settled into the area. They've been tormenting the people in the villages, and misusing their swords."

I looked up from my bowl sharply. "Rogue samurai?"

"I'm afraid so," Kenshin said, nodding. I snorted down into my food.

"Those idiots. You'd think that after all this time they'd realize that the government's not going to change back, but _nooo_…" I said sarcastically. "They have to terrorize people to try to gain back what they once had. Bah. They're not real samurai. A real samurai didn't need to push people around to get their respect. He had it through his actions."

Sano cut his eyes over at me. "Getting a little worked-up about samurai honor, eh?"

I frowned dryly at him, using my chopsticks to flick rice at him. "Pathetic."

Kenshin's sakabatô fell between us, and we both levitated a few feet into the air and out of the way. "Play nicely, you two," he said, drawing the sword back and sheathing it once again.

"Sorry."

"Sorry. So what's your plan?" Sano asked, leaning back and lacing his fingers behind his head.

"Well, this one would like to go meet with them and see why they've come, and what they want," Kenshin mused slowly, and the rest of us broke down in laughter.

" 'Meet with them'? And what side of your sakabatô will be doing the talking?" Yahiko brayed, and Kaoru looked down at her student, clunking him over the head with a fist. "Hey, ugly, what'd'ya think you're doing?!"

"Shutting you up, brat. And I'm not 'ugly'."

"You are from where I'm sitting."

Suddenly, the other side of the table was a mass of flailing limbs and yells. Kenshin and Megumi quickly separated the fighting sensei and her student, and pried Kaoru's hands off of Yahiko's neck.

"Can we all just please get along?" Kenshin said, sighing into his hand as he propped it up on the low table. "We still have to talk…"

"Right. Everyone! Listen up!" I shouted, and traffic in the front part of the restaurant stopped as people turned to stare at us. "Oops, too loud," I whispered, turning red and sinking lower behind the booth screen.

"_Domo_, Sachi-san. Anyway, this one needs you to come with him, Sano. This one has heard a rumor that you might know some of them, and the less violence there is, the better, as this one thinks."

Sano sat up straighter. "You mean, soldiers from the Sekihõ Army?"

"That is some of what this one has been hearing, that it is."

The ex-fight merchant leapt across the booth and lifted the smaller red-head up by the collar of his gi. "Where? Who are they? Why are they here? Do they want to see me?"

"This one hoped you could help him answer those questions," Kenshin gasped, and Sano dropped him.

"Then what are we waiting for? C'mon, let's go already!"

"Sano, it's not that easy. This one doesn't think they would like to see this one strolling into camp with you. We'll have to be more careful then that."

Sano slumped down, looking defeated. "Then what?"

"We need a plan."

Sano's eyes lit up and he slowly turned to face me. Kenshin turned too, both of them with a strange light in their eyes as they tilted their heads to look at me. I looked from one to the other with worried looks.

"Y'know, in a kimono, without a bokotu in her hand…maybe if Kaoru and Megumi did something with make-up and her hair…"

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no! NO! SANO, STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! Kenshin, he's thinking about using me as a distraction to get in!" I looked over at Kenshin as he narrowed his eyes.

"Do you still have that green kimono that matches your eyes?"

"Ok, YOU'RE thinking of using me as a distraction to get into camp too! NO! I REFUSE!"

"They always did like their women," Sano told Kenshin. "They'll think she's the greatest thing to ever walk into camp since new rations of sake. They won't think to ask her questions, and then she can keep it clear until we get in."

"That seems like a good plan."

"Kenshin, are you saying that you're planning on sending ME INTO A CAMP FULL OF MEN WHO HAVEN'T SEEN A WOMAN IN WEEKS?!"

"We'll be there, of course, if it gets out of control," he reasoned.

"I don't believe this!" I yelled as Kaoru and Megumi hid smiles and laughter behind their hands.

"It's not like I'm asking you to lay all of them," Sano said, waving me off. "Just do something to keep their attention on you. Show a little skin, whatever."

Kenshin turned and glared at Sano, eyes changing and narrowing into slits. "You did not just imply that, correct?"

"Ok, maybe not then," Sano said hastily, waving his hands in front of him at Kenshin in a 'no'. "They won't mind it if you just sing or dance or something."

"That's better."

Kaoru brought her hand down from her mouth. "Sachi, you can't be thinking of going into the camps," she said.

"Why not?" I asked her. "I have two people who say they'll back me up, and if they don't, they'll need their own back-up," I threatened, looking at the two men who smiled cheerfully.

"But that's like, sentencing yourself to be in danger," Megumi argued. I thought for a minute. A picture of some poor gangster reaching out to touch me floated through my thoughts, and then I saw Kenshin leap out of the bushes on him, eyes glowing and sakabatô drawn. I smiled.

"No, I don't think that will be a problem."

Kaoru looked at Sano and glared. "I should have known you'd try something like this."

"Hey, just be glad we're only asking one of you to help us, and not all three. Besides, if we're resorting to singing and dancing, we want them watching, not laughing, so that rules you out," Sano said, grinning evilly.

"SAAANOOO!!!" She and Megumi leapt over the small table to the laughing man, and Kenshin somehow got stuck in the middle of the fight. Yahiko waded into it with his shinai drawn and swinging, and I sighed and sat back, crossing my arms. Here I was again, Sachi, whore-for-hire.

"I won't be made useless," I said suddenly, my voice clear as it rose above the other's quarrels. "It's as much my fault for everything as you all have paid for the troubles you've brought down before. Helping out in the camp is the least I can do."

They all turned to stare at me. "She has a point, you know," Megumi said. "When I wanted to kill myself to make up for all the deaths I had caused through the opium, Ken-san convinced me to become a doctor instead and use my knowledge to help."

"I went from hating all loyalist to living with one," Sano said, smiling slightly. From across the table, I saw Kaoru's lips move and heard her mutter something.

"Yeah, is that for the friendship or the free food and bed?"

I smothered a smile, and Sano turned to Kaoru with a dull expression. "If it's your food, it's definitely the friendship that keeps me around." Kaoru's fist shot out sideways and collided with the side of his face as she sipped demurely from her cup of green tea.

"On another subject," she said putting her tea down again, "We need people to help with cooking or cleaning if they expect to stay at the dojo for free…" Kaoru started, and Sano and I hastily scrambled over the rest in the booth in an attempt to flee before things got ugly and we were at the end of Kaoru's hands.

"Yeah, well, we'll see y'all later."

"Yes, have a good lunch!"

Running out of the restaurant's front door, we stopped and grinned at each other. "We're bad," I said to Sano as he pushed his bangs away and peered in the door again. He laughed at the shocked and angry faces we had left behind.

"Awful," he agreed, nodding. "Where you headed?"

I looked up, and then back at him, raising an eyebrow. "You first."

"To see a man about a horse…you?"

"To see a man about a katana," I said, pointing down an opposite street. He nodded.

"Good luck."

"You too. Hope everything…comes out alright." I giggled and sprinted away before his hand could land on me, waving back over my shoulder. Turning, Sano headed in the other direction, whistling.

Inside the restaurant, Tae gasped, her hand over her mouth as she watched the two outside the door walk away. "What is it, Tae-chan?" Kaoru asked worriedly.

"Sano-san and Sachi-chan both skipped out on their bills again!"

Around the table, everyone's heads dropped forward into their food with a _thump_, wearing identical resigned expressions.

"What is this? You pass twenty and your life goes to hell for a year, and then it straightens out again after that?" Megumi asked furiously. "On moment, you're living with a gang, and the next, you're being told you're too much of a liability to go with them?"

"This is cheap," I muttered back. "It's like, 'do what we say, not as you did.' "

"_You're twenty-two_?!" Kaoru shrieked, looking at me from head to toe and then leaping backward. "But I thought you were younger! Older! Something!"

Megumi and I looked at her with raised eyebrows, both smirking slightly. The quality of appearing both younger and more mature at once was something that I possessed, making it hard to believe my age when discovered.

"Yes, I'm twenty-two. Megumi and I are the same age. Why?"

"I thought, I mean…how old where you when you met Kenshin?!"

I counted backwards on my fingers, ticking them off and then folding them back until I got down to sixteen, and then slowly thought, adding another year.

"Seventeen," I concluded. "Your age. But Himura was twenty-one back then, remember. Three years after then Meiji wars ended."

"Ohhh…" Kaoru fell backwards, her eyes crossed and spirals floating above her head in confusion. Megumi and I bent down and tugged her back upright, smacking at her cheeks to waken her up again.

"Come on, Kaoru. No time to be flighty. Remember, we're supposed to be 'holding down the dojo.' "

She gritted her teeth and bolted up again, holding a fist in front of her face. "Grrr…that's right! Stinking men leaving us here to 'hold down a dojo'. Like it's going to run away? Bah!"

Megumi frowned. "How come we're always left back and even Yahiko gets to go? Come on. He's ten. We've been through more."

Kaoru looked up at Megumi. "Hey, watch it! That's my student you're talking about!"

"The one that calls you 'ugly'?" Megumi asked her dryly.

"Vixen!"

The older girl sighed. "You know, you wouldn't need names if you weren't worried," she said fiendishly, the vixen ears all but sprouting from her hair.

If she was a vixen, and Kaoru was a raccoon-girl, I wonder what that made me? Probably a mongoose, I thought flatly. Raising my attention back to the other two, I frowned, watching Kaoru leap toward Megumi and reach her hands out for her neck.

"You may complain," I told the two other girls steadily, "But I won't settle to be idle with despair that I wasn't brought along. Kenshin has his obligations, and we have ours. And moping, and fighting, isn't included."

The slender man raised his katana over Kenshin's bowed head. I was sure that he would rather let himself be killed then deface his honor. And somehow, seeing his head fall to the ground for an unjust accusation wasn't something I was planning on just letting happen. Finding a good man is a hard thing.

"Stop! That's not the samurai way!" I shouted at the ex-soldier, eyes troubled.

He sneered back at me. "What do you know? Don't tell me how to live by my code."

I tilted my chin up in defiance. "As a foreigner, I make it my duty to see this way of honor is kept. Without it, how will your people live?" I asked softly.

"Would you follow the samurai way?" the light-eyed soldier asked, interested in me, this small girl who dared to correct him on his own heritage.

"I would. Even if I had to kill myself," I answered steadily.

"You're a bold one."

"I do my best."

"So let me guess…what is he, your boyfriend?"

I grimaced. "Please, tell me where we wear nametags that announce it."

He laughed, and turned back to Kenshin, using the butt of the sword hilt to lift his chin up. "You've gotta tell me where you found this one. You don't come across them very often."

"This one was fortunate." The soldier looked from Kenshin to me, and sized me up.

"So tell me, if I kill you, will she kill me?"

"Probably. But you should be worried more about Sano."

"Sanosuke? Huh?"

"Long time no see, Nobunga."

"CRAP, SANO!!! WHERE'VE YOU BEEN?" the soldier asked, leaping backward and raising his arms in front of himself as Sano walked out from behind the bushes.

"Here n' there. And Kenshin's right. I would kill you. And she would too. So you better let him go."

"WE THOUGHT YOU DIED!"

"More or less," he muttered. "Now, c'mon Nobunga, I asked you to let Kenshin go."

Sano and I sat across the table from each other, the shadows thrown from the single lantern lit flickering across our faces. Yawning widely, I propped my chin up with my hand, resting my elbow on the edge of the table. "Ok, what did Kenshin say to you before he left?"

"He said that he had to go check on some rumors he had been hearing."

"Which means?" I yawned again, and then tried shaking myself awake. Right. Focus. This was a very important matter.

I felt my jaw drop slack and my eyes started to flutter shut. Stifling another yawn, I rubbed at my eyes with the back of my hand.

"- And knowing Kenshin, that means that he's going to – "

Zzzz…

I jolted awake again, reaching across and tapping Sano's palm where it lay open from gesturing on the tabletop. "Sano, can we finish this some other time? Like, In the morning? I'm not quite…awake," I said, blinking furiously to keep my eyes open. Or at least halfway open.

"I understand he went to go check on a gang, and won't be home for awhile, and that he's probably worried for us, which dignifies his orders to me to stay in our room. The rest can wait. I don't intend on going out tonight, anyway. All I want is a soft bed and a warm man." I blinked, shocked. Did those words just come out of my mouth? I looked at Sano's red face as he tried with master effort to avoid looking at me. Yep. I'd said it. A sure sign I was tired and I no shape to be doing anything other then sleeping.

I beat a fast retreat, waving goodnight to Sano and padding down the hall to the room I shared with Kenshin. The floor was cold, and I stepped lightly and quickly. After spending half of my life in bare feet, it was what I was most comfortable in, though it maybe didn't provide the best warmth.

Once in the room, I flopped down onto the futon and burrowed under the covers, curling up tightly and shivering. I nestled into the slight dip that was in indent from where Kenshin always slept, and breathed in the lingering smell of him, a mixture of musk and the cold metallic smell of steel, with a little of an outdoors smell in it too.

Sighing, I closed my eyes, and dropped into a deep sleep.

I stood in the corner of Kenshin's and my room, with only my wrap-band and hakama pants, looking out the window to see what was going on to make the noise below, and what would have caused Kenshin to tell me to stay.

The dark night wasn't revealing anything, so I lit a lantern and held it up next to me. I raised a hand to cover my mouth as I gasped. The front gate had been smashed down, and now lay broken from its' hinges and splintered on the ground by the gate.

Sounds from behind me caused me to turn sharply, and the shoji screens slid open to reveal the same tall dark man that that questioned me earlier in the week in the market. I left the lantern on the windowsill and backed up rapidly into the wall, hands reaching behind me for something, anything. They were met with bare wall.

Gritting my teeth, I stood up as he walked into the room, grinning as he watched me. "So, Sachi-_yabi_, this is where you come to at night now. How…quaint. The whore and the glorious Hitokiri. How…touching. And at the same time, how did I not see that coming?"

I glared at him, sinking lower into the balls of my feet as I stood warily, ready for anything. "We all have our pasts, Hishori, and not all of use choose to keep them, like you," I spat at him. "Once a slime-bag, always a slime-bag. I remember you now. You owned that whorehouse that masqueraded as an up-right geisha house, and in the dark of the night unspeakable things went on inside it. The stories of torture, murders and deceit don't just stay inside the walls of one house, Hishori. They spread like your evil."

"Big words for such a little girl, Sachi. But you probably think that your Hitokiri will be here any second for you." Hishori leaned forward to me, leering. "He won't, darling, I'm sorry to say. He's being…occupied elsewhere. So it's just you, I and a few of my men for now. But I don't underestimate the Battôsai. So we'll be quick, shall we? You come with us, and no one gets hurt. Not you, not your friends, not your Battôsai. Understand?"

"Like crystal. But unfortunately, understanding and complying aren't the same thing," I hissed, stalking forward toward the long black-haired man with the sharply handsome features. "And I never was one to take orders from the likes of you."

His eyes widened, and his handsome expression turned nasty. His hand cracked out, but I jumped to the side of it, and kicked, my foot colliding with the side of his unguarded jaw. Ducking under his other arm, I ran from the room on light tiptoes, lifting my long hakama pants and sliding along the smooth wood floors.

Skidding to a stop in the corridor near the formal entranceway, I lifted a kendô stick from the rack outside the training room. Armed with it, I ran back into the main house hallways and down the hall to Megumi's room, throwing the door open. "Megumi! Wake up! There's an attack!" I left her as she sat up and threw back her covers, and rushed down the hall to Yahiko's room. He was more ready then Megumi, and ran out after me, his practice bokuto in hand.

I sent him to go find Sano while I alerted Kaoru. Skidding around the corner to her room, I saw a group of men down the hall from her door. Increasing my speed, I ran into them with flying stick, wading into the middle and dealing out heavy blows and sharp cracks on any exposed body parts.

Once they were all dealt with and on the floor, I back-tracked to Kaoru and ripped her door open. "Kaoru! Get up! We're being attacked by a Yakuza group!"

"WHAAAT?!" she yelled, leaping out of bed and reaching for her own kendô stick. Her eyes widened suddenly, and I felt a presence behind me. In-taking a breath sharply, I leapt up and backward, over the gang member. He turned quickly, before I had time to strike, and my stick was met with his steel blade.

Gritting my teeth and grunting from the pressure and strain, I quickly pushed it to the side with force, disengaging his blade from mine. "A little help here would be useful, Kaoru," I gritted out, but she was already a step ahead of me. The man fell with a resounding thud, and a large bump on the top of his skull. Jumping over him, Kaoru joined me as we ran back to the others.

As we passed the middle of the dojo, Hishori appeared in front of us from behind a corner. "Going somewhere, Sachi?" he asked me levelly, and reached forward. I dropped to the ground, planting a hand and sliding between his legs and beneath him. "Yes, away," I retorted. But stopped, seeing as though he had failed in grabbing me, he had grabbed Kaoru instead. The look of surprise on his face at this change in things was comical, but the rumble or rage and flashing of eyes that followed wasn't. She squeaked in surprise and a bit of fear, and I punched him in the back.

Hishori dropped her to the ground and spun to face me, eyes wild. "You're all together too much trouble for a whore," he growled, and reached for his sword. An air current rushed to the side of my face, and I ducked left as a fist whizzed past the side of my head and planted in Hishori's face.

"Thank you, Sano, I was wondering when you were going to get here," I shouted back at him as he, Kaoru and I continued to race down the halls. "Where are Yahiko and Megumi?"

"Safe. I left them in the practice hall once the rest of the gang had been cleared out from the back of the dojo. They all ran after they decided things had gone to hell."

"Good."

"Would someone mind telling me what's going on here?" Kaoru demanded hotly, and I turned to her.

"Sorry. It'd be my fault as it's me they'd be after."

"Arrgh…" she growled, and looked as if she wouldn't mind giving me what the gang member outside her bedroom had received. But if I had been in her place, I would have been angry too. It's not every day that your dojo gate is destroyed. Or hopefully not, anyway.

I arrived at the front door first, and held it open for them as they passed through. Just as I was about to leave myself, a hand grabbed me from behind, and I was thrown across the floor, skidding and crashing into a wall to a stop. I watched booted feet as they kicked the door shut and then an arm as it dropped the bolt across it.

Blinking slowly, I tried to rise up by pushing myself up with my arms, but I was stopped as the same boot I had watched pressed down on my back. My face slammed into the floor again, and I felt blood rush out of my nose. Another foot collided with my ribs, and I groaned in pain.

"This would have been so much easier if you would have heeded what was right, Sachi. It's a pity you didn't listen before, so with these injuries now, do you know what that means?"

"You're an ass?" I offered, and was treated to another sharp pain shooting this time from my arm and a boot heel to my elbow.

"No. This means a few week's recovery from these bruises and cuts. So if you can't work out in the geisha house for me, you can work in my own bedroom, can't you?"

I was abruptly hoisted up into the air by my hair, and I yowled in pain and slashed out with my hands and nails, catching Hishori across the face. He hissed in pain, and I glared at him through the blood that streamed down my face and over my eyes from the cut in my forehead that I had gotten from sliding into the wall. "Although I have to say, _sasuga_, Sachi-_yabi_."

Suddenly, the door literally exploded apart behind us, cut down the middle and then kicked in. The bolt shattered, flying through the air. Hishori ducked, dropping me lower. I took the opportunity to walk my feet up his chest and kick him in the face, biting into his wrist that's hand held me at the same time. Yelling in pain, he dropped me again, and I crawled down the hall, grasping the side of the wall with two hands and pulling myself up. Turning back, Hishori had started to turn toward me again, and then stopped, slowly turning to face the nonexistent door instead.

Kenshin stood in the doorway, only he looked as I had remembered him from the days when I first knew him as Hitokiri Battôsai. His once big blue eyes were narrowed and turned a deep red-gold with rage and bloodlust, and he held his sakabatõ in front of him at the ready. "I wondered what the gang member had meant when he had told me that 'the boss had an appointment with a flower', but now I understand. Sachi is obviously the flower, and you are obviously the offending boss. And _I_ am here to kill you for the trouble you have caused me, and the pain you have caused her."

Flipping his sakabatõ, he pointed the blade edge out, like if would have been on a normal katana and settled lower, preparing to strike. My eyes widened, and Hishori stopped still.

"Battôsai. It's good to see you again."

"No time for small talk, Mygomi Hishori. You had your chance, and now it's your time to die."

Hishori's eyes narrowed to match Kenshin's. "I don't doubt your skill, Battôsai. I'd be a fool to do so. But I also do not underestimate mine. Know that even if you do kill me, others will be after what I sought, sooner or later, and they will be more powerful," he said, pointing down the hall to where I leaned against the wall, eyes wide. Kenshin's eyes flickered down to me, and for a second he faltered. That time was all Hishori needed to draw his sword and lunge forward.

Kenshin's eyes flicked back to Hishori, and he raised his sakabatõ to meet the falling katana. They sparred, and Hishori met his thrusts, parrying them. He lunged down at Kenshin, chopping down with his sword in an attempt to crush the smaller Kenshin. His blade sliced thin air instead.

Turning, he looked to see Kenshin behind him, ready for his next attack. Mygomi yelled, arcing in from the right. Kenshin held his stance, but then was forced to jump back as Mygomi suddenly changed the direction of his attack, reversing it to come in from the left. The two blades met again between the two bodies, pressed together in a tight X.

Pressing back, Kenshin stepped between the blades and Hishori's body and drew his sakabatõ down swiftly, loosening the lock of the two blades. Jumping into the air over the other man, he raised his sword over his head and swung it down as he fell. A resounding _crack_ echoed down the hall, and I winced and closed my eyes until I heard the thump of a body hit the floor.

I opened my eyes to meet Kenshin's narrowed gaze on my own. "That is the second time I have killed for you, going against the vow I made to myself ten years ago. I put myself in further repentance and debt for you. Though I wish I were never pressed to do it, for you, I am willing to go against that vow. But do not make me continue to break it. The next time I must kill someone, I cannot say without doubt that I won't mind it."

He lowered his bloody sword blade, turning it over again so it became a once again normal sakabatõ. But with the red blood dripping from the blade, I wondered if it would really ever be normal again.

I went back to our room as Kenshin herded the others back inside and helped Sano re-erect some semblance of an outside gate again. Crawling back into my bed, I pressed my face against the mattress, trying to keep the tears in by pressing them back under my eyelids, and stifling the sobs that choked my throat.

What I had seen tonight wasn't either the Hitokiri I had known, or the Rurouni that was peaceful now. What I had witnessed was the true Hitokiri Battôsai side that had earned him the name issued in a hushed whisper of fear in dark alleys and inside gangs. And once I had seen that side, I knew why Kenshin hadn't wanted anything to do with it, and why others spoke of him in fear. And I had caused it, for what seemed to be the second time.

A soft hand fell on the back of my head, smoothing down my hair and going lower to my shoulders, where they rubbed across them, trying to loosen the tight knots of muscle that had settled between my shoulder blades.

Turning my head up, I sniffed, looking back at Kenshin. "I'm sorry. Do you want me to leave?" I asked, and sat up quickly, swinging my feet off the side of the slightly raised futon, getting ready to leave if he asked me to.

Kenshin reached toward my face, and I subliminally cringed away from his outstretched fingers. He frowned, and a look like pain flitted behind his wide blue eyes.

"Sorry," I apologized again, seeing the look on his face. "I didn't mean it. I just…" I trailed off, and his fingers landed lightly below my eyes, smoothing the tears off my cheekbones with his thumb.

"No. Stay. I need you here." Kenshin said quietly, and I crawled down the bed to him, resting my forehead on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and up the back of my neck, cupping my head in his hand. He supported me as a few solitary tears ran down my nose and dropped off onto his gi, staining the shoulder, soaking through until it was dark in small patches.

"Kenshin."

"_Bijin_?"

"I'm afraid."

"I know. I'm afraid too."

"You hide it better then I do."

"But it's still there, living inside me. We would be fools not to fear things. That would be the worst mistake to make. If you were never afraid of anything, you would never have the sense of caution that makes you aware."

"Kenshin, he said more would be after me. Why are they after _me_? I haven't even been a prostitute for the past few years. I don't have any more profit on me."

Kenshin gently pushed me up so he could look eye-to-eye with me. "_Bijin_. There is something you need to know."

"What?" I asked, cold fear trickling into my heart, his serious eyes and tone making me nervous.

"I learned something tonight from the man I interrogated to the gang's dojo. There is a price up on you in the slave trader circles."

My eyes widened, and I put a hand up to my mouth. To have a price on one's self is like slave suicide. Once up, it doesn't come down until you're caught and auctioned off to the highest bidder, whoever they may be. "I don't understand. I bought my freedom. They can't buy me or sell me back into the trade!"

"The price is high enough to make that fact not matter. And to them, freedom papers are only slips of paper. And they can be ripped up and thrown away."

The room spun before my eyes, and I gasped. Kenshin pushed my head down, and the blood rushed back up to my head again. The dizziness and ringing stopped, and I looked up again. "So this means that more traders will be coming to try to find me."

"Yes, _bijin_."

"Kenshin, what am I supposed to do? I can't run. They'd find me wherever. And I can't hide. They'll rip the city apart until they find me."

"You'll stay here."

"But that puts you and the rest of the people here in danger."

His eyes went dark and narrowed again. "Then we'll deal with the danger. But you go nowhere without me from now on. No leaving, and no running. The only way I can protect you is if you stay with me."

"I understand."

"Good. Then for now, the only thing that we can do is rest. A body can't function without sleep."

I nodded, and numbly slipped back under the blankets. Kenshin soon joined me, but I turned my back to him, facing away. Kenshin put a hand on my shoulder and rolled me back over to him. I sighed, and then nestled against him, thinking I'd only be safe if I could melt into him. He wrapped his arms around my back, holding me to him and resting his lips on the top of my head. I focused on the rhythm of his breathing, and slowly forced my breath even to match his.

Protected, I drifted off to meet uneasy dreams of shadowed men, and chains that clicked against it's self. My wrists tingled in remembrance, and felt heavy, as if I were wearing them again. The weight suddenly dissipated, and instead a steady presence by my side accompanied me through my dreams for the rest of the night.

Kaoru looked suspiciously at me, then back to Kenshin. "How come the instant she walks into town we suddenly have more gang traffic? What do they do, follow her?"

Kenshin and I looked at one another, silently conversing with our eyes. Now wasn't the time to tell the girl about why they were here. It would only add fuel to her fire that she had stoked high enough against me already.

"And STOP DOING THAT!" she yelled. "I know you're talking even if you are only using your eyes!" She spun off and Kenshin shrugged.

"Miss Kaoru doesn't like being left out of things," he explained.

"I guess not. She certainly isn't as cheerful as usual today."

"She doesn't like it when things are happening around her that she doesn't know, especially when they effect her."

We both turned to look at the smashed front gate and I grimaced. "Yeah. I guess that's kind of in the realms of effecting her. Do you think I should pay for the new one?"

"That would be a nice gesture."

I sighed. "New gate, coming right up. As soon as I find some money."

"Are you turning into Sano?"

"I resent that."

"I resent it more." Sano's voice behind us caused Kenshin and I to jump a few feet in the air.

"Oro?"

"Whoa!"


	5. Back Into the Snake Pit

Act Five: Back Into the Snake Pit

I stood in front of the doctor's house in town, raising my fist to rap sharply on the door. I continued to pound until I heard a voice speaking to the door as it came closer.

"Ok, ok, I'm coming. You woke me up. What do you want? It better be good." The door opened suddenly, and I almost fell into Megumi as the vixen-girl looked down at me. "Huh?"

"Megumi, may I stay at the hospital tonight?" I asked tentatively. "I know you were planning on staying here tonight, and I think you have the better idea."

"What's wrong?" she asked, quickly becoming more aware of her surroundings as she woke up.

"Kenshin and Sano are away and Kaoru's moping."

"Ah. When the Ken-san's away, the kendô princess will get surly and sulky. I know," she said, winking at me and giggling. "It's like she finds a reason to get into a bad mood. Come in," she added, holding the door open and gesturing.

I smiled at her and walked up the two steps, but at the doorway looked back and frowned. Staring out into the night, I turned back and shook my head at Megumi. Something was wrong.

"No. I better not."

Megumi looked confusedly at me. "Why?"

"I don't want to bring you any trouble. I have a feeling trouble will be following me tonight."

Frowning, the taller girl reached behind into the hall and took a hospital haori off its hook. "If that's the case, then I'm coming back to the dojo with you tonight. I don't care."

"What about your doctor?"

"Gensai won't mind. I'll be back in the morning. And I can help keep you company. We can laugh at Kaoru together."

"That's not completely what I had in mind…"

I ran out of the room the instant I heard the first scream. It was coming from down the hall in the entranceway, and the continuous high scream of fear was soon replaced by a gurgling noise. I had heard that frantic sound before. It was the sound of someone being choked.

Skidding to a stop, I backed up from the sight before me subconsciously, eyes widening in horror. A man stood holding Megumi in the air by the throat, and he turned. A small shriek escaped my mouth, and he grinned, his transfigured face like that of a nightmare demon's.

He was gigantic, tall and thick with muscle. His skin was black, and he wore a black haori and hakama. But contrasting with his skin were his eyes, yellow, and slotted, like a cat's. Protruding from his mouth were two fangs, and when he opened his mouth to grin, they pointed down and a slit tongue like a snake's slithered between his teeth. Something about the proportions of his face was off, and I realized that his lower jaw had been cracked back to make room for his large fangs.

I retched in the back of my throat, bile rising. The monster in front of me shook Megumi sharply, and then dropped the girl to the floor. She hit the ground, and didn't move. "Megumi!" I heard a voice yell. My own.

The man walked toward me steadily, and I realized he smelled like a bog, wet and decomposing. It didn't help my gagging any, and it only increased it. I bent over double, choking in the back of my throat.

Through my tearing and blurry eyes, I didn't see he had disappeared until he was beside me. A hand fell on the back of my throat and I was lifted up much like he had held Megumi.

Frightened out of my queasiness, I tried turning my head, rolling an eye down to look at him as he regarded me through the yellow eyes. "They call me the Viper. And I am here to take you to my master."

"Like hell you are," I rasped through my quickly deflating windpipe, and swung my legs up to brace my feet against his throat, pushing hard. The Viper stumbled backward, and dropped me, clutching his own windpipe. I hit the ground and tucked, using my momentum and rolling away. Flipping backwards from my back to my knees, I crouched, massaging the front of my throat.

Scuttling over to Megumi, I lifted up her wrist and felt for a pulse. There was one beating beneath her skin, and I let go of her and stood up again, turning slowly toward the awaiting Viper. "I have a message you can deliver your master," I said slowly, moving very cautiously towards him. "Tell him that Shinrin Sachi and her blossom died long ago, and that if I ever see or hear of any slave traders or his minions, I will kill both of them. I've let go of my past, and it's time they let go of it too. What was will never be again."

"I shall deliver that message to him."

"See that you do."

"For now, though, I am more inclined to deliver _you_ to him."

"Then you'll have to come and get me," I said, standing straighter and a feeling like steel was growing in my bones. I settled into the balls of my feet, placing my left leg behind my right and putting my weight on it. I raised my hands to chin level and gestured with two fingers. Come here.

He moved like his namesake, too fast for me to follow. All I saw was a black blur and felt air as it rushed toward me. A rod of black descended, and I raised a forearm to block it. Like lightening strikes, blows rained down on me, and I couldn't blink as I moved my arms to block them. Up, down, side to side, and then suddenly, they stopped.

Panting, I looked up at the tall man who was rubbing his hands together. "You're quick," he said, admiration in his voice. "Where did you learn to act before you analyze?"

"It's a woman thing." I dropped to the ground as he leapt forward, and bombed over my right shoulder into the floor. Sliding along the polished floor, he pushed up and looked back at me.

"And I think that training with Battôsai might have had something to do with it."

The yellow eyes opened wide. "Battôsai? You train with Battôsai?"

I nodded, wiping the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. "He lives here."

"I would very much like to fight with this Battôsai. I have heard a great many things about him."

"Then leave me alone and come back some other time when he'll be here."

"I might have to do that. A fight with Battôsai is far superior over a fight with a whore, no matter how quick she might be on defense. I prefer to let the other strike first."

"_What_ did you just call me?"

"A whore."

"I thought so." My eyes flashed and I jumped forward, as if I were going to kick him in the center of the chest. Dropping to the ground at the last moment before I hit him, I slid underneath him and grabbed onto his ankles, making him fall face-first onto the floor.

Standing behind him as he jumped back up into a crouch and whirled around rapidly, I shot my hand out, palm flat with fingers curled down to their bases. The heel of my palm collided with his nose, and I felt bone crunch under it as his head tilted back and my palm skidded up the front of his face to crunch into his forehead.

"Compliments of Battôsai. Please don't feel the need to return again. Or a broken nose and cracked skull will be the least of your worries. Send my regards to your master."

He reeled backward and slammed back to the floor. A yell from the door caught my attention, and Sano and Yahiko ran to me. "What's this?!" Sano demanded, and Yahiko yelled again.

"Hey!"

We both looked over, and saw the Viper jumping over the back gate. "Who was that?" Sano asked, and I rubbed the heel of my hand with my fingers.

"Someone who dropped in to say 'hello, and would you mind if I took you to my master as a slave again?' "

"I take it you minded."

"Obviously."

"What made you take him on on your own? Movements like that mean he obviously has martial arts training. Like a ninja."

"Back-bone of steel," I said, tipping Sano a wink. "But really, I think that sooner or later we all have a breaking point. Seeing a friend hurt was mine. Nightmares aren't that scary, once you touch them to find out they're real. You can hurt something real. You know because it can hurt you. Once pain touches you, one will always be willing to fight for their life."

"Where did you learn that?" Sano asked, clearly fascinated by the reasoning behind it. I pulled a half-smile over my shoulder as I looked back at him.

"Kenshin. And from life. You can scream in a dream and wake up, but screaming doesn't solve anything in real life. Only action does when faced with the choice of life and death." I walked over to Megumi and knelt at her side, cradling her head in my hand and gently smacking her cheeks to try to wake her up.

"You'll need to hit harder then that," Sano said, tilting his chin down at Megumi. "She's out."

"Then give me a hand and let's bring her back to her room. She should be fine. Only scared and knocked out. She'll wake up with a headache and bruises, but that's about it. The doctor's daughter will know how to take care of herself."

"And you?"

"I'm fine."

"Good. Kenshin will flip out when he hears about this incident."

"Where is Kenshin?" I asked suddenly, peering around the tall freeloader. "If you're back why isn't he…?"

Sano's face shut down. "He had some more business to take care of. He'll be back tomorrow."

"Oh." Things didn't go as well as had been hoped. That's the only reason I could think of for Kenshin not to come back with the rooster-head. I frowned. Something was going on. I didn't like being left out of it either, after the excitement tonight.

Kenshin and I stood in the middle of the road, looking at the crowd of rapidly growing people in front of us by the riverside. Exchanging looks, we both trotted over to the group, winding between gathered people to get to the front.

By the riverbank, a man had washed up, lacerations all over his muscular black body. Someone stood by him, and lifted up a limp wrist, feeling for anything beneath his skin. "He's dead! Stone dead!" he called out, but I had already known that. A few strong men rolled the waterlogged body over, and my eyes widened as I took in a sharp breath. Kenshin turned to me, and I nodded, pointing to the yellow eyes open wide in death, and the fanged mouth that was twisted open in a silent scream.

"That's the Viper," I said, and then choked back rising bile at the memories. Even after being tortured and thrown into a river, his scent of bog still clung to his smooth black skin.

We both stared at the body, as if expecting him to spring up at any moment and grab for me, ever the monster of my terror. "Well, someone got to him before we could," Kenshin stated, looking down at the man with mixed emotions of frustration and relief. "It's a shame. I would have liked to face this 'Viper' and see what he was really like," he said. "He wanted to face me. I was waiting for him."

This confession startled me, and I watched Himura's face as the Battôsai battled the gentle Rurouni for dominance. I hadn't seen him this ready to fight someone in a long time. It was as if he felt someone had stolen something from him, killing the ninja before he had a chance. In his mind, what could have been the perfect enemy had been killed before he got a fair try at him.

I was sure wherever Viper was in hell, he was surely as disappointed. Kenshin turned away, excusing his way through the crowd. I followed, but looked back at the body. 'Go ahead, play dead. You couldn't face Kenshin, and now I can't get my revenge. You disappoint me.'


	6. Rivals and Assassins

Act Six: Rivals and Assassins

"This one thinks that it's time for you to have serious training," Kenshin said, peering at me closely in interest. "With these 'guests' coming in, it's always a good thing to know how to protect one's self."

My jaw dropped open. "You mean, you're bringing me to the dojo where Kaoru trains?"

"This one doesn't see any reason why not to, and all the reasons why it _should_ happen."

I threw my arms around his neck and hung onto him, kissing him furiously. "Oro?!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Kenshin wrapped an arm around my shoulders to keep me upright, and I over-balanced, tilting forward, the hilt of his sakabatô imbedding it's self into my stomach and knocking the wind out of me. "Ompff!"

"Oro?"

The next day I followed Kaoru and Kenshin and Yahiko to another _kenjutsu_ dojo across town. The sensei was an old friend of Kaoru's father, and she had been going there to train for awhile.

We stopped in front of a large dojo marked 'Chuetsu-Ryû Maekawa Dojo' on the board outside. We kicked off our sandals by the door and slid the shoji screen aside. The action inside the training hall stopped as we filed in, and then shouts went up.

"Kaoru-kun!"

"_Kon'nichiwa_!"

"Where have you been in the past week?"

I slipped in behind she and Kenshin, keeping my head down and scoping the place out from behind their backs. One of the men saw me, and pointed, leaning over to whisper to one of his friends. Soon, a buzz was going around the assembled students and then they hushed.

A middle-aged man with gray hair and a beard stepped forward, tall and strong. He shot a look to his students. "Why did you stop working? Come on, go back to your training," he prompted, and they reluctantly turned away, back to their training. Turning to Kaoru, he tilted his head to me. "Kaoru-kun. I see there is someone new with you."

A hand slipped behind my back, and Kenshin pressed me forward. "Maekawa-dono, this is Shinrin Sachi. She will be training here from now on when Kaoru-dono comes."

Maekawa-sensei nodded. "I trust your judgement, Himura-kun. Shinrin-kun, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before. I am the sensei of this dojo, Maekawa."

My tongue was sticking to the roof of my dry mouth. "_Kon'nichiwa_, Maekawa-sensei. I am…a friend of Kaoru-dono and Kenshin."

His thick eyebrows raised momentarily when I didn't use a suffix after Kenshin's name, and in fact, used his familiar first name. But he smoothed out his face in a second's span, and turned, taking a bamboo shinai off the sword rack behind him. He offered it to me, hilt first. I took it, and shifted it from side to side, testing the balance. Satisfied with the balance and springiness of the shinai, I nodded.

Maekawa smiled at me. "Obviously you have training in _kenjutsu_."

"Only a bit, from what I pick up, and what Kenshin teaches me."

"Himura-kun teaches you?" The surprise in his voice was evident, and he turned to Kenshin, who nodded. "Then you are a lucky person, Shinrin-kun, to have the good fortune to be taught by Himura-kun. So why are you here?"

"Yes, why am I here?" I said, turning and posing the question to Kenshin, who blushed.

"This one wants her to have more experience in a _kenjutsu_ school setting, rather then just in a back yard whenever we have spare time. She has talent. This one would like to see it honed."

"But you won't shape her yourself?" The sensei was incredulous.

"_Îe_. It's not this one's style to take on a student."

"If you say then, she will be welcome here."

So with that I became a regular with Kaoru at the Chuetsu-Ryû center every week. Once the students there got over the fact that another girl was training alongside them, and they learned that I didn't tolerate being babied just based on my gender, we got along for the most part. In fact, the only one not getting along with me was Kaoru.

It seemed as if she had taken offense to no longer being the only girl, and in impromptu rivalry sprung up between us of who could beat whom, and rise to the top of the class first.

Although we might have been rivals at the center, back home at the Kamiya-Ryû dojo, we were as friendly as always. Which at times stretched the term 'civil'. But for the better part, the sword training war was kept for the days we trained, and the friendship was kept for the home life.

I was thoroughly enjoying my training. Not only was I finding that sparring against Kenshin had made me capable of dealing with most of the men at the dojo, I was also finding my own 'center' of my mind and body through the intense training.

Kenshin continued to give me private training, and was impressed with what Maekawa-sensei had been teaching me.

I stood, facing Kenshin in the front yard, a bokuto in my hand. "Today, _bijin_, we are going to discuss the five basic stances of kendô: Jôdan, Seigan, Gedan, Hassô, and Wakigamae."

"Jôdan." He stood with his sword lifted over his head.

"Seigan." A cut to the middle level of his body, in quadrant 2, being the torso.

"Gedan." A low, sweeping block down toward the shins.

"Hassô." The sword held vertically, with his hands at shoulder level.

"Wakigamae." A horizontal guard position.

I blinked suddenly, the images seared into my mind of past times fighting, frantically racing to match them with the stances. "You use Seigan the most!" I blurted, and Kenshin smiled.

"You catch on quickly. Yes, this one tends to favor Seigan, that is true. Very good memory. Now I would like you to try each stance and tell me which you find most capable to you. Each swordsman is different, each will have his or her own favorite stance that works best for them. Take your time. This isn't a test."

I understood. I really understood. Breathing deep, I settled myself into my feet, grounding myself, and closed my eyes, raising my hands and bokuto above my head for Jôdan. I opened my eyes, and Kenshin leapt toward me.

"Yagggh!" I yelled in surprise.

"Sachi-chan, use your stance!"

Needless to say, I took more then a few tries of each until I found the one that I preferred. But as I moved into the position, it felt right. Again, Kenshin leapt toward me, but this time, I swept my bokuto down and to the left, blocking his side-swing.

"There! Now butterfly-cut! Crescent! Down! Block!" He stopped suddenly, and I waited, holding my bokuto ready in the favored stance.

"You understand," he said suddenly. I nodded, not wanting to take my eyes off him even for a second in case he attacked again. He lowered his sakabatõ, indicating I could relax. I followed suit and dropped my sword, and Kenshin smiled. "That will keep you covered from anyone, no matter who you fight. A good neutral stance that can either block or guard is the best defense."

I nodded, wiping the sweat off my forehead with my forearm. "That's it for today," Kenshin said. "You'll be at Maekawa-sensei's dojo tomorrow. Use it then. See what happens."  
Kenshin turned away from me, and I smiled, the bokotu rolling lightly off the ends of my fingers and falling to the ground, raising a small cloud of dust as it dropped. My bare feet taking short but quick strides, I launched into the air, reaching out toward the unsuspecting ex-Hitokiri's back.

Just as I started to fall onto his back, a figure walking around the corner of the dojo caught my eyes, and I looked up at Kaoru, taking my eyes off Kenshin's back. "Kenshin, there's something I need you to-" Her eyes suddenly widened, mirroring mine. "Hey…!"

I looked down again quickly, but Kenshin's back had disappeared under me as he dropped toward the ground.

"Hey!"

Her fist swung up from her side and I winced. "Crap."

_Wham_.

"Ompff!"

"Sachi-san! You must stop doing that! This one ducks because of his Hitokiri training, and you end up getting hurt by Kaoru-dono!"

"Hey!"

The voice startled me out of my deep concentration as I swept the shinai around me in a complicated fan-like movement. Blinking, I turned, forgetting that the bamboo sword was still in the air, waiting to be caught and swung again. It fell to the tatami floor with a _clunk_, and I blushed bright red as I quickly snapped down to pick it up.

"You! Shinrin-kun!" A medium-sized, medium-built, medium-looking student was standing a few feet from my side, his hands on his hips and a fierce expression on his face.

"Yes? How can I help you?" I asked levelly, keeping my tone and expression blank, but my shinai grasped in hand. It would appear to be a loose place at my side, but anyone who would have looked closer and known a thing or two about _kenjutsu_ would have noticed I had it ready to be swung up to defend at any moment.

"That's a geisha bun!" he cried, raising a hand suddenly to my head to point at my hair. I might have been a bit jittery, and as soon as I saw the movement of his hand swinging up, I raised the shinai up. It knocked into his wrist, but by that time, I had had the time to slow the motion so that it merely _tonked_ off harmlessly.

He looked own and then shoved the shinai blade off of his wrist. "I'd know one anywhere!"

A passing student muttered as he passed us. "Yeah, we know _you_ would, Shinkei." I covered a small smile with my other hand, and then nodded.

"So what if it is?"

"But then…that would make you…a geisha!"

"Wrong. Well, half-wrong. I was. But then I was a prostitute," I explained to the student.

_Thud_. His eyes rolled back into his head and he moaned, falling backwards and hitting the floor.

"Oops," I said.

"She trains hard. It's almost as if she purposely pushes her limits. I fear that she may break herself one day," Maekawa said to Kenshin as they watched Sachi going through her drills on the floor, her jaw set and eyes intensely focused.

"Mmm. This one will watch her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"It's a shame she was born female, and European with a tendency for self-exhaustion. She would have gone far back in the day."

"That she would have."

I eyed the man that I was set to spar with today. He was a good foot and a half taller then I was, and had at least fifty pounds on me. Dubiously, I lifted my shinai when I heard Maekawa call the 'start'. Holding my shinai vertically, and at shoulder level, I assumed the Hassô stance.

He came at me from the side, and I tilted my sword to block him. At the same time I blocked, I slid past his offense, seeing as he was attacking, and wasn't guarded. Using the power from the block, I slid it down the side of his shinai and to the space where his armor gaped open under his arm, and tilted it downward, toward his heart.

"Valid hit through arm-hole past offensive swing!"

I leapt back and looked at the man I had beaten as he looked down in failure. "Better luck next time," I offered, and moved over to Maekawa-sensei.

"Shinrin-kun, where did you learn the Hassô stance?"

"Kenshin, yesterday, sensei."

"Very good. Very good," he said with praise in his voice. "And why did you pick Hassô?"

"It felt right to me. And the maneuverability of my sword is made to either block or cut."

"Good choice. Now, I have your next opponent." He gestured behind his back, sweeping a hand behind him to someone who was waiting. "You and Kaoru will be sparring."

I gaped at him. "Wh-what?!" I demanded, and pointed to Kaoru. "I'm fighting her?"

"It's time. You both have been rising rapidly through the ranks here. I want to see how evenly matched the two of you are."

I stared at Kaoru, and she stared back. Looking into her eyes, I saw what we were both thinking. Whoever won this match would be the best in the dojo. The top fighter. I wanted that so bad I could taste it.

We never took our eyes off each other as we lined up for our match. She raised her shinai in front of her, and I fell into Hassô. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed again. She wasn't going to let a stance stand in her way of winning. And I wasn't going to let something like her confidence in _my_ way.

"Start!"

As I predicted she would, Kaoru jumped forward to me, always the one to take offense. I was happy staying in my stance and blocking her thrusts, seeing as the defense took less energy then the movement of attacking. All I had to do was block her blows and wait for her to slip.

Kaoru wasn't a push-over in the least. In fact, she was the hardest I had faced here since I had progressed past the stage of initial shock where I was losing to most of my matches. A few lessons with Kenshin, and more trusting in my instinct, and I was fighting against the likes of Kaoru.

Finally, with a grunt, she lunged past me, and I stepped back, letting her fall forward with her momentum. As she passed, I stepped back behind her and raised the tip of my shinai to the back of her neck. She froze, and time seemed to stand still.

Without a sound, Kaoru turned carefully and looked at me out of the side of her eye over her shoulder, as careful of the shinai tip as if it had been a real katana. We regarded each other, and then I lowered my sword, bowing to her slightly. "A worthy opponent, Kaoru-dono. It was a pleasure to face you."

"As it was you, Sachi-san. Congratulations."

She turned and walked off the fighting tatami, and Maekawa-sensei came up behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder as I watched the defeated girl go. "Even the best get beaten and know when to admit defeat. Well done, Shinrin-kun. We're all very proud of you. I would like to talk to Kenshin about your style some day, so that I might know how he is training you. It's very…unique."

"Thank you, sensei. May I leave, please? There is someone I wish to speak to."

"Of course."

"Kaoru!" I called out, once back on the streets, hurrying after the retreating figure. She stopped suddenly, and I stopped a few feet from her as suddenly, my chest rising and falling with my deep breaths of air. "Wait."

"For what?" she asked, and then turned away, walking away from me. Without turning to me, I heard her say something. "Wait so you can brag about winning? I don't think so."

"That's not what I wanted to say."

"Then what is it? Huh?"

"I just…" I paused. "I would like to congratulate you, too. And maybe request a re-match sometime. I think Fate might have dealt a bad card."

Kaoru spun to face me. "Don't even start!" she yelled. "You get everything without even trying for it! The title, the skill, Kenshin!"

The last one shocked me, and I rocked back on my heels as if I had been punched and had had the wind knocked out of me, my eyes wide. As her meaning registered, they flashed like green fire at her. "Kaoru. Stop."

Her mouth snapped shut and she glared at me. If I had been anyone else, I would have been getting beat on, but I wasn't one she would hit.

"It might not seem like I work for my successes, but I do, Kaoru. Oh, how I do. I train as hard as you do. You know that. As for skills," I shrugged. "I won't apologize for what the gods gifted me with, and what was ought out and helped along by those who wished to help me. And Kenshin…don't bring him into this. I spent so many years of my life alone and in the most horrible of places, selling my body so I could live. Don't begrudge me of my prizes of survival. What I went through you can't even imagine."

Kaoru's face fell and she shut down, not meeting my gaze. "I'm sorry. I was harsh. I didn't mean that. I know that you haven't had the best of lives."

I raked a hand through my wind-blown hair. "One day, Kaoru, I'll tell you of a life so outside of the one you've known. And maybe once I share it with you, it will give me the strength to share it with he who doesn't judge."

"You haven't told him?"

"We all have secrets. You should know that."

The next week when we arrived in the Maekawa dojo yard, I stopped, looking questioningly to the building in front of me.

"Come on, Sachi, what are you waiting for?" Kaoru asked impatiently, and she and Yahiko walked to the door and entered, without waiting for me.

Kenshin gently touched my elbow. "What do you feel?" he asked quietly, and I frowned, shaking my head in confusion.

"I don't know. It just feels…off."

"Off? Some chi?"

"Almost. Tell me what you think."

He paused for a moment, and a look of stillness overcame his face. Blinking and breaking out of it, he looked at me. "I get the same feeling. Someone with a powerful chi is concealing it."

We entered the dojo cautiously, looking around. Maekawa-sensei and Kaoru were in conversation, but he paused when he saw me, catching my eye and tilting his head as if to say 'come here.' I obeyed, putting an arm back to tell Kenshin he didn't need to follow after he started after me.

"Yes, Maekawa-sensei?"

"We have a guest here today that I was just telling Kaoru about. He comes from a dojo in Kyoto. Looks like a promising swordsman, and was asking to duel against some of my more skilled students. Would you be up to it?"

I hesitated, and then nodded. "I'd be pleased to."

"Good. I'll have him do a few practices before, and then he can have a go at a few of you."

Kaoru and I nodded in unison, and the sensei turned away. "What do you think?" I asked her quietly, in a low tone that wouldn't carry.

She shrugged, lifting her hands to her shoulder palm up. "Who knows? New blood."

I watched the strange traveler from a distance. He hadn't taken off his long black cloak, and the deep hood his all but the lower half of his face in shadow. Peculiar behavior for someone when fighting in a match.

"What did he say his name was?" I asked the sensei as we watched him fight against another of the students of the dojo.

"Nobu. Nobu Atsushi."

I snorted out my nose. "There are a million Atsushi's in Japan, and Nobu isn't exactly a rare name. But someone with this type of skill wouldn't have a common name like that. We would have heard of him."

"Agreed. He is something else. He's beating my best students effortlessly, not even breaking a sweat or pressing for speed or strength. What a swordsman."

The stranger had already picked his way easily through three students, and was in a match with Kaoru as we watched. She gave it all her talent, but there was no getting past this man. Her teeth gritted, sweat pouring off her, she finally had to admit defeat when Atsushi pressed the tip of his shinai into the side of her neck.

Stalking off the tatami platform, she walked right over to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Sachi," she gasped. "He's incredible. You can't beat him. You can't even _touch _him. He's in front of you one moment, and then the next…gone. You won't be able to beat him. Don't even try. No one but Kenshin could handle him."

I listened to her, but was already sizing up the man who was waiting for me on the tatami fight platform, shinai held loosely at his side. Shrugging her hand off, I laid my own on her arm. "Kaoru. I'm going."

"Fine. Be that way. I warned you."

I walked slowly out onto the tatami, like one would if one was walking across ice they weren't sure was completely frozen. One could never be too careful with these hidden swordsman.

Standing across from him, I peered over at him sharply, trying to see under his hood. As if sensing my movement and objective, he shifted back again, deeper into the shadows.

"Match of two-out-of-three," Maekawa-sensei announced. "START!"

He lunged even before I had time to raise my shinai. I saw his own go up high above my head, and my eyes widened in alarm. It hissed down, and I squeezed my eyes shut, reading the outcome.

_CRASH._ I hit the floor, grasping my left shoulder as I howled in pain. I heard bone click, and then felt my shoulder slide back with a sick wet _thunk_. "AGGGHHH!" I wrenched my shoulder forward and clumsily popped it back in again

I opened my eyes to see him standing above me, raising the shinai for a second blow. Rolling to the side, I leapt up at the ready. But he had already committed to the swing, and his shinai hit the tatami floor.

_CRACK. _I looked down to see a split in the floor where I had been a moment ago. This stranger was fighting me with everything he had, not in the easy-going yet forceful manner he had been with the other students. The man was brutal. He meant to kill me, I knew that now. But who was he?

Cries came up from the gathered students. "Hey, what're you doing?! Be careful!"

"What _was_ that?!"

"Are you trying to kill her?"

I saw his mouth move in response under the hood. "Yes."

My hand dropped off the shoulder it was nursing and down to the shinai's handle. "Hey. Traveler. Come get me."

He whirled in a tight circle, shinai raised, and then swept it down and to my side. Both hands gripping my shinai, I raised it up to meet the attack and blocked it, gritting my teeth in effort as I skidded back across the floor with the force of the blow that resounded down my sword.

My already hurt left shoulder gave, and I ducked down and under his swinging sword as it rushed to where I had stood. Standing up again, I took the time to try an attack of my own. Enough waiting to be killed. Seek death or wait in fear.

I jumped high, out of the reach of his shinai and over it as it whizzed under my legs as he whirled, landing to the side of him. He looked over and I frowned at him. Using my legs as pendulums, I swung them over into a cartwheel flip and swept my shinai parallel to the floor and into his shins. A roar of surprise went up from the crowd.

Landing, I held my shinai ready in my right hand, by left hand to the side of the sword with two fingers held straight up as a guide. Some of my hair had fallen out of it's bun in my rapid movement, and I blew it out of my eyes. That wouldn't be helping me any.

There was a moment where neither of us moved. Breathing fast, I watched his torso and hips to betray any sense of movement before it happened. This man was sharp. You could usually watch an opponent's eyes to see where they went for their next hit, but he was covering his face under his hood. Who was this dangerous man?

Suddenly, he grinned, and I knew I was too late to dodge his next hit. I raised my shinai against it as it fell, and then before he could apply more pressure to the hit, blows were raining down all around me. Block after block I gave hit for hit.

He was wearing me out with the force of his hits, even for someone like me who prefers to block rather then strike. I was dripping with sweat, gritting my teeth with effort and even crying out as he locked shinai blades with mine, interlocking stances and leaning into me.

I could finally see under his hood, when pressed up against him, body to body, and fighting for balance, and the power to push him away. His crazed black whirlpool eyes shot sparks of hatred at me. "Fight me, damn you. Or I'll kill you if you won't help yourself!" he hissed in a low voice at me, and I gasped at him.

"Nagara!"

"Who else?"

My eyes blazed back at him without warning, and I pushed back on him with a surge of power I got at seeing this crazed assassin again. A figure from my dark past, this was not a man I wanted here now. So much could go wrong with him here. And I had no doubt he would kill me, if he got the chance.

"Fire-eyes again," he chuckled. "That's more like it. Come on, Sachi-_yabi. _I know you're hiding in there somewhere. Come out, come out," he called in a sickening voice.

Knowing I was losing a battle by pushing against the taller, heavier and stronger assassin, I quickly disengaged my shinai from his and bent over backwards, watching his blade as it whizzed past and over my face, narrowly missing it.

"I forget how quick and supple you are, Sachi-_yabi_. I won't make that mistake of underestimating you again. So say good-bye. The best treacherous woman is a dead one." He laughed heartily, and threw his head back. His hood fell back, and exposed his chin-length spiky black hair and crazed eyes. He hadn't changed at all since I had known him, not even looking like he had aged a day.

My eyes widened as I watched him as he raised his shinai above his head and started a rapid serious of butterfly cuts down, zigzagging from side to side. I knew this attack. So well. The technique used to slice a person like a ribbon, butchering them. And if one man could kill with a shinai, I wasn't doubting it was Nagara.

I didn't even raise my shinai. It wasn't worth it. It would be cut until it fell in small piles the thickness of a sandal sole. If I was going to die, I would die facing the sword with my eyes on it the entire time. Dimly, I heard the roar of voices in the background.

A blur jumped in front of me, pushing me back. Landing in a sprawl on the floor, I looked up quickly to see the cutting shinai blade met with the flat side of a sakabatô. Grinding the momentum of the shinai to a halt, it was pushed down slowly, inch by inch, even though Kenshin was putting all his muscle into it. The two men stared eye-to-eye, glaring at each other. Nagara raised his shinai again, sweeping it toward Kenshin's side with impressive force.

Kenshin jumped over the blade, avoiding it. Nagara grinned in surprise. "What have we here? Someone with talent? Well, come on then, little red-head, show me what you've got."

Pushing myself up, I bit my lip as my shoulder seared in pain. The two men, lithe Kenshin and tall and sinewy Nagara were a blur of action, attacking and blocking with rapid speed.

"Nagara!" I shouted. "Stop it! Your battle is with me, not Kenshin!"

The two sprang apart, and Nagara grinned at the smaller man. "So this is the Rurouni that I've been hearing so much about. That explains a lot."

I stepped forward, but Kenshin swept out an arm, stopping me behind it. "No. You're hurt. He'll kill you."

Nagara grinned again, at me this time. "Quite true. As it is, it's no fun to fight people who can't swing back when hurt. So I'll be back for you, Sachi-_yabi_. There's a message I don't think you're quite getting. Make sure the next time I see you, you're healed, have a real katana, and have that fire in your eyes again. I won't fight you without you into the battle. I'll just kill you."

"Warning taken, Nagara. Don't feel as if you need to come back."

"Oh, but I do. We have unfinished business, you and I." He turned and thrust the borrowed shinai back at a student behind him, and then left the dojo quickly, leaving the door open behind him.

Kenshin sheathed his sakabatô and walked over to me where I stood, holding my shoulder in place. "Who was he?" he demanded, eyes still narrowed into his Hitokiri death-glare.

I winced under his gaze, and shifted my shoulder up again. "Nagara."

"Just Nagara? No last name?"

"Nagara doesn't need a last name for what he does."

"How do you know him? What does he want?"

My face shut down, and my eyes closed off from revealing any of my emotions or thoughts. "He's someone I used to know," I offered, and that was it. Kenshin wouldn't be getting any more then that out of me.

Kaoru, Maekawa-sensei and Yahiko crowded in to us, all wearing worried expressions. "Are you alright?" Kaoru asked, and I nodded to her, adding a little hitch of my shoulder in.

"As best as could be expected."

Maekawa-sensei looked down at me. "Shinrin-kun, that man was after your death. He didn't even _fight_ the other students, he only beat them. But he went after you with complete ferocity. Who was he?"

I glared at the same question again. "Someone I used to know."

"I'd advise that you find out what he wants, and then that you stay out his way."

"I know what he wants." The statement shocked them all into silence, and then Yahiko looked up.

"So are we going to go after him?"

"No."

" 'No'?! What do you mean by 'no'?! You're just going to let him kick your butt and then walk away?!"

"There's other things that need to be done. Besides, he'll find me when he wants to see me again."

"ARRRGGGHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! WHAT ARE YOU, A COWARD?!"

"No. I'm hurt and I know enough not to go after Nagara when I'm hurt and tired. I couldn't face him again now if my life depended on it. Even when it did, he's still a better swordsman then I am."

"This one hasn't faced someone who's trained in the ancient sword arts and is that fast in quite some time," Kenshin offered, eyes hooded. "He's truly a powerful one."

"I could tell that from his fighting aura," Maekawa-sensei said. "He gave out this void of space that I could feel even watching. How didn't you feel it, Shinrin-kun?" he asked.

"I'm used to it."

Kenshin looked sharply at me. "The concealed chi." I nodded at him.

"It's been so long that I didn't recognize it."

"Hmm…" he murmured, and then trailed off, staring out thoughtfully.

Maekawa-sensei pointed to my shoulder. "You best get that to a doctor to examine it. At the very least, he dislocated it."

Kaoru smiled. "I know exactly where we're taking you."

"Megumi."

Th taller girl smiled. "_Kon'nichiwa_, Sachi. Ken-san, Yahiko. Kaoru," she added, and the other girl growled and raised a fist in warning. Megumi giggled behind a hand.

"What can I do for you? You said you needed a doctor."

All pointed to my left shoulder.

Megumi frowned and looked at it, peeling back the shoulder of my gi to examine it more closely. Kenshin blushed red, and Yahiko's eyes widened. I smiled at their responses. "It's alright. I've got a wrap-band on."

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Megumi asked, and pushed my shoulder back. I yelped and flailed out toward her. "Ok, I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said hastily. "I think you've had it dislocated. What happened?"

"A fight at the Maekawa-dojo got out-of-hand," I told her tersely, and the expressions on the others face's tightened. She looked around and frowned.

"Mmm. I see. Why don't you others leave us alone, and I'll slip this back into place?"

They nodded and trailed out of the room. Once they were gone, Megumi turned to me. "So now tell me what _really _happened."

"Someone from my past showed up and wasn't too happy with me. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd like to kill me."

"Ah. I understand."

"Better then the others do." We locked eyes for a second across my shoulder and arm. Of all the _gumi_, Megumi had the past closest to mine. She knew about gangs and shady trades. A question entered her eyes, and I read it, nodding.

"So."

"So."

"Did Ken-san jump in?"

"Of course. Threw me out of the way to do battle," I said dryly.

"Doesn't change, does he?" Megumi asked, smiling.

"He did."

"True. I forget you knew him long before the rest of us did."

"Sometimes I forget that too. You all know more about 'Kenshin' then I do. I knew about 'Battôsai'."

She looked at me and her face became thoughtful. Shaking her head, she smiled at me. "Ok, you win."

"What?"

"When you first came, I tried so hard not to let you in. I didn't want to like you, or have you replace me. Or even Kaoru. I wasn't very welcoming to outsiders. I wanted the group to stay that way forever. But…"

"But?"

"I guess I like you. If I can't have Ken-san, then I'll be happy seeing him with you instead. You make him happy, if not a little less Rurouni-like. But he's still the same, really. And you can tell he truly cares for you."

Her speech shocked me. I sat back with my mouth open, trying to gather back my quickly floating away words. "Megumi…I don't know what to say. Well, I do. Thank you. _Domo arigatô_."

"Eh. It makes no difference," she reasoned, shifting her focus to my dislocated shoulder again. "Ready?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Good," she said sweetly, and then pushed back on my left shoulder hard. I felt bone grind on bone, and then pain hit my shoulder like a sledgehammer, racing like wildfire down to my stomach.

"YAAAHHH!" I cried in pain, eyes smarting with tears. I balled my fist up and slammed it down into the floor to get my mind of the shoulder as Megumi gently tweaked it back and forth until it settled back into it's socket.

"There. All done."

I gasped. "Thank the gods."

"Why? You don't like pain?"

"Not like that I don't. I think it hurt less being dislocated then going back in."

"Probably. It was faster, anyway."

"Sano! Catch!" I called, and the tall rooster-head turned around as I threw the bokotu through the air to him. He reached up quickly, and snagged it from the air in the middle, a true fighter. When catching anything, you won't be put off-balance by grabbing something toward the middle, where the center of balance of the object will usually be.

"Can the fight-merchant fight with a sword?" I asked, and raised my own bokotu, smiling sharply like a cat.

"Sure. How different can it be from a zanbatô, anyway?"

I laughed.

"Hey, you aren't even supposed to be holding a sword! You're shoulder isn't ready for the strain, Megumi said. And Kenshin would kill you _and_ me if he finds out I helped you start training again."

"Come on, Sano," I moaned. "I'm dying of boredom. I can't train, I can't even do any sort of psychical fighting or work. I've got two choices: sit on my butt all day, or sleep."

"Sleeping sounds good."

"Put yourself in my sandals for a minute. I'm dying here, Sano. No one's even around to _talk_ to."

He rested the bokotu across his shoulders and rested his arms over it. "So go see Megumi."

"I'll get in her way."

"Go to the beef bowl shop."

"I don't have any money."

"That makes two of us."

A slight pause.

"You could change that, you know," Sano suggested. "Go put on a kimono and find Kenshin and charge him for-"

_Whack_. I glared at him. "That's enough from you, freeloader."

"Owww! Man, I don't know what Megumi meant when she said you needed to 'recuperate', but that arm doesn't seem to be hurting you to strike like that!" Sano protested, rubbing his forehead.

I smiled grimly, leaning on the bokotu again. "Drugs," I reminded him. "For the pain. I'm floating in a happy little bubble."

" 'Happy bubble' my-" _Whack_.

"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to put your sword where your flapping mouth is?" I asked him, drawing back my bokotu and raising an eyebrow as I stood on guard.

"THAT'S IT! YOU DID IT NOW!"

"I was hoping for that."

Sano swung from the end of the hilt, using his upper-body to swing his arms around.

_Zoop_. I stood on his other side, looking at him in interest. "You've never used anything other then the zanbatô, have you?"

He turned again, gritting his teeth and swinging down at me, wielding his bokotu as if it was the zanbatô, rather then a shorter, lighter weapon with a different technique of use.

_Zoop. _I ducked out from under him and swung in from the side. Stopping most of the propulsion, I tapped him lightly but sharply on the ribs. "Sloppy. You're leaving yourself wide open with your big attacks."

"WILL you STOP IT with the COMMENTARY?!"

"I'm only giving you tips."

"I don't NEED tips!"

"Yes, you do. And stop swinging around like that. It's easy to duck under such a wide swing and enter the range behind you or to your side."

Sano stopped the swing he was making by dragging it down instead of out and changed his course, now attacking straight at me rather then around me. I shifted my weight and blocked the gigantic attack, stiffening into it so he wouldn't push me back. With a _snap_, his bokotu broke in half between himself and the pressure from mine.

I jumped back, and Sano threw the two halves of broken wooden practice sword aside, bringing his fists level to his grin and bending slightly.

"Ok. Now try."

I lowered my sword. "That's not the point."

"So?"

"So I'll still be able to get under and around you."

"No you won't."

I sighed long-sufferingly. "Don't you want to become better with a sword? Any initiative at all?"

"Who needs a sword when you've got fists?"

I rolled my eyes. "Ok Sano. Consider this your lesson. I'll fight you…" I shifted the bokotu from my right hand to my left. "…Left-handed. And I'll still beat you."

"That's your weak shoulder."

"Uh-huh."

He smiled. "This'll be easy. Sure. You're on."

"Ready?" I asked.

"More then you." So confident.

"On guard." I dropped, tucking and rolling under him as he lunged forward with a punch. Unbending from my crouch, I waited for his next move. Both his arms shot out, and I turned sideways between them, tapping the top of his head with the bokotu. "Head."

"That's it! No sword-freak touches me!"

"Ribs."

"I MEAN IT!"

"Thigh-"

The next thing I knew I was falling backwards with a ringing in my eyes and a pounding in my jaw. Then I was flat on my back staring up at the blue sky and white clouds. "Ouch."

"That's what it means to be a fight-merchant! No sword can compare to that."

"Ow."

"So are you planning on getting back up, or what? Going to keep lying there?"

"Ohhh…"

"Sissy."

My feet levitated me off the ground, and I landed with sword in front of me, eyes narrowed. "WHAT did you call me?!"

"A sissy."

"You're not going to get away with that, Sano. Welcome to me kicking your butt now."

I jumped forward to meet him, and fists and wooden sword clashed, starting a full-on brawl. Fist and foot found me, and the edge of my sword frequently smacked onto his exposed limbs.

The dojo gate opened, and Sano and I looked toward it. A flash of red caught our eyes, and we both leapt quickly away from each other, Sano brushing off his haori off, and I hid the bokotu behind my back. We were both covered in black-and-blue bruises, Sano had a cut pant-leg, and I had a trickle of blood running from the corner of my mouth.

"Hey Kenshin."

"Kon'nichiwa, Kenshin!"

Kenshin stopped and looked at us for a moment. "You two weren't fighting, were you?"

"Who? Us?" Sano asked, shaking his head and smiling broadly.

"No. Never. Why would you think that?" I asked, flapping my hands 'no' and opening my eyes wide and innocent.

"Good. You know what Megumi-san said, Sachi. No-"

"…Fighting, training, or hard work for another week, I know," I said, joining in and finishing for him.

Kenshin nodded, and then continued on, into the dojo. We waited a second for him, and as soon as the door slid shut behind him, Sano and I let out a deep breath. "Whew."

Turning back to each other yet again, I whipped out and held the bokotu out in front of myself and grinned. "Again?"

"You bet. I haven't beaten you enough yet."

"All words, Sano, all words. I'll let my blade do the talking for me." We held our positions for a second later, Sano with his fists raised, and me with the bokotu held across in front of myself.

The dojo door slid open and Kenshin looked out at us with flat eyes and a frown. "I thought so."

Sano and I offered him weak grins. "Heh…heh?"

I sat upright on the futon, peeling the covers back off me and rolled off the side of the bed. Silently, I crossed to the door and opened it, looking back at Kenshin's sleeping form.

I slipped out the door and walked down the dimly lit hall, out the dojo's door and across the yard to the training hall on the other side of the little courtyard in the middle of the square-shaped building.

It was raining, and I stopped in the middle of the yard, lifting up my head to taste the rain and let it slide down my face. I would rather walk in rain then take the long hallways to the training hall, any day.

Continuing, I stepped up the hall steps, slick with wetness, and into the hall. I went over to the cabinet on the far side and opened one of it's doors, rummaging around in the bottom until I found what I wanted. Wrapped in a length of fabric I had cut from an old kimono was a katana in it's lacquered sheath.

I lifted it up, and examined it in the flickering candlelight. Strapping it to my side, I walked out to the middle of the long hall and stood, center. I popped it up with my left thumb, and reached across with my right hand, drawing it out in a flat arc in front of me. It made the sharp _shing_ noise that well-made and dangerously sharp katana do as they are unsheathed, and I smiled and drew it and my arm behind my head, and then back, resting the flat side of the blade on my shoulder. I slid my right hand up, and placed my left below it, on the end of the hilt, with pinkie finger curled around the bottom. Pressing up again with my hands, I swung it to the left, and then stopped at center, where an opponent's chest would be.

I stretched my left hand out in front of myself, holding my pointer and middle finger together hand straight, palm out and thumb out to the side. I held my katana vertical, and then drew it back as if you would a bowstring, flat and horizontal with the ground. I lunged forward, and as my sword swept past my left hand, it joined on the base again, swinging it to the left in an arc, back to center, and then stopped, moving back to the first position with left hand out. Only, this time, I braced the hilt on my side, under my left arm, and then stepped forward and left as I struck parallel to the right.

Caught up in the sword-dance, I practiced swings overhead, complete with turns as I let the katakana's centrifugal momentum carry me, spinning in a tight circle. Bringing it down straight with a gasp, I lifted it back up, and started to get lost in the dance. Some things take a katana to make it real, and my old friend brought back memories and moves I was sure I had long forgotten.

I held the katana in a straight line across my chest, with my left hand gripping it higher and facing in, and my right lower and facing out. Using this 'strength' hold, I could increase the power of my hits by double the force. Sparring with the shadows, faces floated in front of me, past foes and others who wept in despair.

Kenshin sat up as the sword of a sword being drawn echoed through his dreams. Looking beside him, he realized Sachi wasn't there. Reaching for his yukata, he shrugged into it, hurriedly tying the obi.

Going to the doorway, he stopped for a moment, closing his eyes and honing in on the presence he felt across the dojo in the training room. He opened his large purple eyes, and walked out the side door and across the courtyard, where it still spat rain down outside.

Lights flickered in the training hall, and Kenshin softly drew the shoji screen door open, looking in at the whirling figure that held the shining katana. Sachi's chi was unbound, and he rocked back a moment, as it washed over him.

She was already dripping wet from walking through the rainstorm, and her hair was limp and damp around her face. Her eyes were fierce and a cold green as they concentrated deep inside of herself, focusing not on her hands and sword, but on something in front of her that Kenshin couldn't see.

"Sachi." She continued to move in her sword dance, and Kenshin frowned. A lot of these moves he hadn't seen before, but what he did know also took a fair amount of skill and higher-level _kenjutsu_ training to master. The look on the girl's face was starting to get more and more intense, and he could see that she wasn't far from snapping completely out of the normal world, and into whatever memory she was fighting with.

"Sachi!" His sharp voice reverberated around the training hall, and Sachi froze, then whirled around, sword held in front of herself. She looked up, her eyes cold and in some other place, not recognizing him.

He stepped forward toward her, and she raised her katana a fraction of an inch to follow his movement. "Stop," he said, reaching out toward the blade. It jumped up as he reached out, and he caught it flat between his hands.

The girl's eyes fell to the trapped blade, and then she shook her head sharply, eyes clearing. Looking up, her eyes grew wide. "Kenshin!" She withdrew the sword, and he let go of it. Quickly sheathing it again, she looked up. "I'm sorry! I didn't realize…" she trailed off.

"You were far away in another time and place. This one doesn't take offense in your actions. Any swordsman would have done the same." His eyes grew sharper as he looked down at her. "I just wish that you could tell me where you were. Those aren't just any form of _kenjutsu_. They're a special technique."

Caught off guard for a second, she nodded. "It's called Yoruyousha–ken, 'swords of night-mercy'," she said off-hand, and then her face closed down.

"I've never heard of it. Something from the past I don't know about."

"Yes."

"One day I hope you will share where you trained and why with me. But until then, I'm happy to see that the technique calls of a firm grip but loose wrist with all the swings. It's a help for you."

I nodded again, and he took the katana from me gently. "Come. Now that the night-demons are out of you, let's go to bed."


	7. I Give Only Half

Act Seven: "I Give Only Half…"

My eyes flickered open, and I raised a hand to my pounding head. I sat up and looked around, taking in the strange and ornate room. I was lying on a woven mat, and dressed in a beautiful pink kimono. But this wasn't where I was supposed to be. The last thing I remembered was a sweet smell from the incense I lit, and then something knocking sharply against my head, and watching the ground rise to meet me. Where was I?

Sitting up, I brushed my long braid over my shoulder and looked closely around the room, trying to figure out where I was. A few of the things in it faintly stirred remembrance in the back of my mind, but I couldn't remember anything concrete.

A voice filtered through the shoji walls, painted with scenes on misty mountains and cranes in pools of water. It moved down the hall, growing away from me until it became faint. I stood up and rushed to the door, banging on the edges with my fists. "Where am I? What do you want?!" I yelled out to the person, but they other didn't hear or didn't care.

Restlessly, I moved around the room, picking things up to examine them. My old clothes were carefully folded next to the mat I had lay on, and a cherry-wood desk sat near a window. I went to the desk and opened drawers, rifling through them to try to find any scrap of information. All I got was blank paper and writing brushes, along with an empty inkpot.

Going back over to my pile of clothes, I exchanged the elaborate kimono for them, because I felt more comfortable in clothing I could move in rather then dressed up like a doll. As I bent down and picked up my haori and hakama, something caught my eye on the small shelf above the mat.

A small jade emblem in the shape of a viper, curled around it's self with it's arrow-shaped head resting on it's coils. My clothing spilled from my hands as they turned numb, falling in a pile to the floor as I stared at the figure with an open jaw. Viper, the mysterious ninja who came from his master to me. The elegant house and rich kimono. A group of slave-traders who wanted me back in the slave trade. A dojo dubiously called the 'Snake Pit'. The gang of traders who had captured and enslaved me after I ran from the okiya. The Black Adder Group. The most feared of the top lords in the slave trade. Hishori had been one of them, along with four other men. When they had taken of me, they didn't have names, but gradually over time, I had figured them out.

There had been Hishori, one of the cruelest, but now dead. Then there was a silent man who almost never spoke, named Ryroko Jinji. A small man who was cheerful, and didn't seem the part of the trader he was, but on closer inspection, he proved to be just as cruel as Hishori, only hiding his rage behind a small smile and a laugh. Boku Nokumi.

Next was a personal friend of Hishori. His brother. Mygomi Rei. With the handsome looks of his younger brother, the elder also was just as outspoken and self-confident.

The last was a man whose face I never saw. He was always sitting in the shadows, a tall and muscular man. His voice had placed him in his early thirties, and it seemed from the conversations I remembered that he was the unofficial leader of the Black Adder Group. He had only one name that I knew: Tsunaji.

Frowning, I settled back on my haunches and frowned at the jade serpent that seemed to leer at me, it's forked tongue stuck out it's mouth, hissing at me as it bared it's sharp fangs. I swept a hand behind it, and pushed it over the edge of the shelf and onto the floor, where it shattered. "I've spent too many dark years on my life on you," I whispered down to the shards. "It's time for me to be done with you, and your poison."

I quickly reacted down again for my own clothing and changed. Walking back over to the shoji screen door, I jiggled the locked handle and then I ran my finger along the edge near where the handle stuck out. Finding where rice paper met wood, I carefully pushed against the edge with my fingertips, pressing and sliding with my fingernails until I felt the screen lift away.

Peeling it away from the wood, I ripped the section away near the handle and stuck my hand out to the other side of the doorknob, unlocking it from the outside. Pushing the door open, I let myself out cautiously, looking down the hall in both directions. It was clear, and I started silently down the end of the hall to a lit room. Pressing up against the wall, I looked around the corner. Empty yet again. The room was a formal sitting room, and lit with a few lanterns burning their wicks slowly. I dragged a cushion to the door and sat down, keeping my eyes out on the hall.

I turned sideways for a minute to look at the lanterns and see how long the wicks had been lit, and my eyes caught the sound of a soft footfall down the hall. My head jolted up again, and I looked out.

A long shadow at the end of the hall raised a hand and gestured me closer with it, the skin of their hand flashing white in the near darkness. Turning, they leapt over the railing over the garden, planting a hand on it and pushing themselves over it. I would know a move like that anywhere, preformed with that grace and ease of having done it numerous times. "Nagara!" I whispered under my breath and leapt up from the cushion I sat on.

I ran to the railing and leaned down over it, my braid falling back over my shoulder, peering into the garden below. The assassin was nowhere to be seen, but that didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't there. An assassin's job was to hide where others couldn't see him, and lie there silently in wait for his prey.

Frowning, I turned my back on the railing, hurrying down to the lower level and out into the garden. I stopped on the porch, and listened sharply for anything that could give the crazed killer away. An intake of breath, or the scuff of a shoe against loose dirt. But nothing met my ears. Nagara was playing cat-and-mouse. He wouldn't come out until I went looking for him. But two could play this game.

"Tell me, Nagara, are you playing this last game of 'find me, kill me' for your masters, of is this just your own revenge?"

His voice floated out of the darkness, but I couldn't pin-point where it came from. "No, I'm doing this for myself. I owe you your death, at least, after you abandoned me out on the last mission."

"The Group will be mad at you if you get to me before they do."

"They only want Sachi-_yabi _back for her power and beauty. But I only want her back so that I can kill her and know that I killed the best there was."

"You don't ask for much, do you, Nagara?"

"Only for you to bleed out at my feet as I watch you die slowly."

"Thank you. I feel so much better now that I know you'll savor my death."

The assassin suddenly appeared next to the tall willow tree before me, his black clothing blending in with the dark bark and wood. "We could have been a magnificent pair, Sachi-_yabi_, you and I. We were as good as they come, but then you had to go and leave me to finish the last mission by myself because you got cold feet when we were sent to kill Kei."

"What did you expect me to do," I spat at him, "Kill the man that protected me while I worked at the Green Dragon?"

"He only protected you while you were there. You made the choice to leave and exchange prostitution for the life of an assassin when rented out by the Group in exchange for a small bit of the cost of your freedom."

"I had my freedom! They played unfair! I paid Tengai my sum before I left with the Battôsai."

"And then Tengai, bless him, went and spent it, squandering your money that was meant to go to your Masters. So they still had claim on you until you paid them back."

"I wouldn't trade my freedom for Kei's death." I'd hurt Kei once. I refused to hurt the man again, after all he had done for me. So I ran, like a fox, away and into the night to hide in her arms, going to the only place I knew how to trust. To wherever Battôsai was.

"Even though that damn samurai was sniffing too close into the Group's doings, you still couldn't finish the last assignment. So you left me to defend myself against the samurai and his friends while you ran like the fox you are."

"I ran to get away from the Group, and from you. I didn't want your insanity poisoning me the longer I stayed."

The other assassin scowled. "You left me to die without even saying 'sayônara'. I had such high hopes for us, Sachi-_yabi_, if only you had stayed. We would have over-thrown our masters and started our own order of assassins to rule as we wished. No one would have stood in our way. You and I could have ruled the under-world in both Kyoto and Tokyo."

I snorted. "I never had any intentions of ruling any world, thank you."

Nagara sighed. "I know. That's why after I found out that you ran back to your loyalist _dog _I vowed to kill you, myself. And I guess there is no better night to do so then this."

Looking back inside the dojo, I turned and frowned back at Nagara. "Where's the Group?"

He smiled ruefully. "I had to send them out on a little excursion to get them out of the house so I could use it to keep you tonight. They're chasing after a…_dog_, let's say…who they think has you with him. But once they get back, they'll find you…out here on the ground, under their nose the whole time."

"And you will be…?"

"Gone into the night."

"As always."

"Yes. There was a time when you would follow me into the darkness silently."

"That time is long gone, Nagara. What was will never be again."

"Too bad." We were both silent for a moment. I looked up into his black whirlpools of eyes and stared down at him.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Kill me. Let's get this over with."

"Agreed. But we'll do it the old way, no swords, just jujitsu. And if you're not on your knees and begging for your life within a half-hour, we'll bring out the katana."

"Fine."

He grinned sharply at me, and then disappeared from the side of the tree, into the darkness and I heard his laugh reverberate around the night air. "Come on, Sachi-_yabi_, the night waits for you to join her again."

I stepped off the porch step and onto the grass, thankful I had changed into my darker clothes. They helped me blend in more then the pink kimono would have. I cautiously walked to the back side of the willow silently, and ducked behind it. A moment later, I felt the trunk wiggle a bit as someone came to the other side. With my back pressed flat against the tree, I swung my right arm out around the tree, hand flattened out so that the strong side of it along my palm and little finger smashed into Nagara's left shoulder. "Left shoulder for left shoulder," I hissed at him. "Mine still hurts. It's time for you to earn a little pain."

We both pushed off the tree and circled around it, watching each other carefully. The trunk came between us, and when I shifted, Nagara was gone. I whiled around, but too slowly.

He had struck me in the back hard, using the sides of his hands like I had used mine. I cringed in, and then straightened, grabbing onto his wrist as his hand shot out again. I pulled him toward me as he went off-balance, and kicked him in the stomach. Nagara wheezed. "There's some of the girl I used to know. Bring her all out. I want to see her all again."

"No chance," I retorted tersely.

"Then without all of yourself, I'll just be able to kill you," Nagara said matter-of-factly, and pulled back with his arm, and me still holding onto his arm fell forward. He lifted up a knee into my stomach, and I gasped out. Using the same knee, he kicked me away, and I rolled across the lawn, stopping curled up in a fetal position as I squeezed my eyes shut in pain. He walked over to me and rested a foot on my side.

"Ready to beg yet?" he asked. I opened my eyes and shook my head.

"Not a chance." I grabbed the foot on top of me and flipped him over, jumping up as he fell back. He jumped up and kicked toward my face. I bent over backward and grabbed his ankle as he kicked over my face, using the power of the kick to drop and throw him over my shoulder.

We stood face-to-face again, and he jumped up high, into the air. I dropped to the ground and planted my hands, using my hands and my left foot to pivot around as I swung my right leg out in a low kick, hoping to knock him out of the air.

As he dropped back to the ground, I jumped high, kicking straight out with my right leg as I curled my left one back in. He was below my kick at this point, and I went over his head. Landing behind him, he lunged forward with a fist out and I jumped up to a kick-spin, but he checked his speed and dropped again instead. I landed and rolled backwards as he stood.

A few yards from each other, we breathed shortly, and I ran back toward him. He kicked up, and I crossed my forearms across my chest to block him. His foot hit my crossed arms and bounced off.

Backing up, Nagara held his own arms in an 'X' as he got ready to strike with his hands. Reaching forward, I hooked my thumb around his right wrist and placed the span of my hand between his wrists, locking my elbow and pushing back on him. He leaned forward and bashed his forehead into mine, making me let go as I fell back.

I landed on the ground with my arms supporting me behind my back, and Nagara stood above me, rubbing his wrists. "You don't give up so easily. I think it's about time to break out the katana," he said, and I nodded.

"Enough of this. The only way to kill someone the way you want to is with a sword." At the same time I said it, I cringed back inside my heart. Nagara was the better swordsman, as had been proved at the dojo match. If there was ever a time that I would need all my power, it was now. But that was taboo. I hadn't used it in years. Would I be able to control it again now?

I caught a flash through the air and jumped to the side as a katana imbedded it's self into a tree behind me. "Nice move," I told Nagara, wrenching it free and holding it in front of myself in Hassô. He attacked as fast as I thought he would, striking down. I blocked it and felt my knees shake, about to give.

Lowering myself lower and lower until I was on my knees, I pressed up on his sword until it gradually began to raise back up, giving my space to stand up under it. My eyes flashed their green fire, and I gritted my teeth, baring them at Nagara.

"Welcome back," he whispered. "Welcome to life again, Sachi-_yabi_."

His sword fell again, and we both slashed in on each other at the same time, swords meeting and shooting off sparks as metal brushed metal. Nagara curved in to me, and I jumped over his sword, a close call as it trimmed off the few extra inches on the bottom of my hakama pants that hung lower.

I landed, and he continued his spin that his great curve had started, gaining speed as he came in a second time. I raised my sword just in time, and his blade nicked just over the edge of mine, biting into the exposed skin on my collarbone.

Gritting my teeth, I flicked my wrist, turning my sword sideways so he couldn't push harder and cut deeper into me. But at the same time I protected myself, I also had to graze my skin with my own sword blade, gently slicing open a patch of skin along my shoulder. I winced in pain, and bit my lip, but was able to save myself by using the butt of the hilt to slam it into Nagara's forehead.

He fell back, and then recovered. For someone as insane as he was, pain was an added pleasure of fighting. He almost got high off of the sweet pain that coursed through his veins, singing. Smiling psychotically, he cut down again, coming closer then ever to cutting my middle as I hurried to block. The great swordsman grinned. "Good save."

I heard the garden gates burst open, but paid no attention as a familiar voice rang out.

"NO!"

I yelled, levering my sword up so that his blade slipped off mine. Swinging it back around to myself, I thrust it out sideways and parallel to the ground. A sideways sword was always the hardest to block. Nagara dodged it, laughing insanely. "Ah! The Night-Dragon strike! You can't block it because it comes in from the side so fast, and flat. Too bad I was there when it was taught to know that the only way to avoid it is to dodge it, or else you surely would have had me!"

Breathing hard, I looked up at him, having lost control of my eyes that burned with a fire lit from my soul. I realized that they only way to get out of here alive would be to kill Nagara. This was a fight to the death. And having lost control of my boundless power, I wasn't the one in control of myself anymore. My rage was.

From across the courtyard, I heard Kenshin yell again and flicked my eyes to him. Both Sano and Kaoru had grabbed onto him, and were holding him back from running into the battle I was in. They barely were keeping control of him as he strained forward, reaching out.

"NO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO! SACHI! NO!"

Turning my eyes away from him, I slid my right hand up to the top of the katana's handle, and dropped my right arm along the hilt, with my left guiding it at the bottom. Using my arm to swing it down, I guided it down with all my strength. As it fell, Nagara was grinning from under my sword. "Yes," he whispered. "Now she is free again. My work here is finished. Today marks the start of your fall into hell again. I'll see you there."

My katana blade bit down, across his left shoulder and cutting down to his heart. He fell beneath me, still smiling as blood poured in red rivers from him. "So sweet and warm…" he mused, and his whirlpool eyes fluttered, and then went blank.

"Agghh!" I shouted, pulling my blade from him and throwing it down onto the ground beside him. "Be at peace, Nagara," I whispered. "I hope you fair well in hell."

I turned away from my fallen ex-partner's body where it lay still and red on the dark grass, staining the patch around it black and wet in the moonlight. As I started to walk back across the garden to where Kenshin and the others were, I tripped, all the power from me leaving in a great whoosh of energy, leaving behind a frail hollow shell of me. I dropped, exhausted. Kenshin broke free of the other two, and ran, dropping to my side. "Sachi?" he asked softly. "Are you alright?"

Kenshin's eyes widened. "That's the real fire of Shinrin Sachi."

I stood my ground, hands loose by my sides, chest still rising and falling rapidly with my rasping breath. I looked him full in the eyes and inclined my head to him ever so little. "Yes. Welcome to Sachi-_yabi_. Sachi-Night Beauty, who moves like silk lightening."

"All these times that these men said that…that was what they meant? They knew about your skill?"

I put my head down. "I meant it to be a secret, but it got out into a circle of close slave-traders, all friends, yet rivals. And whoever got me not only got a whore, they got an assassin in the side, for hire if I could buy a bit of my freedom in exchange for murder."

"Why didn't you use it in the dojo fight? Why didn't you protect yourself?"

"You were all around me. I didn't want to let the secret out."

"But why don't you use it, if only to help you, if you have it?"

Looking down and away for a moment, I looked back up at him, steady-eyed, but there was a new clearness behind the deep pools of green that sucked everything around me in and returned nothing. "I made a vow to myself never to use more then half. You know what it's like to make a vow. You don't break it, if at all possible. Because once I pass that half-way point…who knows where I come out of it? It terrifies me," I whispered.

Kenshin dropped his sword loosely to his side, and shook his head. "All this time you fought with me, and I had no idea. You deceived me. Why?"

"Because I didn't want to become what you are."

"Why not? Why not be great?" Sano interjected, and I switched my gaze to him. He was hit with my fire-eyes, and turned away sharply. "Sorry."

"Why not kill if you could? I have no desire to be great. I have only desire to live."

"How did I not know?" Kenshin asked, sounding at a loss with himself.

"You aren't the only one with secrets, Battôsai. And I've kept mine longer and deeper in me then yours. After living the life I did, you won't know anything unless I want you to. That goes for all of you," I added as an afterthought, looking at the other two where they stood to the side.

Turning, I walked away, holding my bloody katana at my side. Stopping a few strides out, I lifted my blade and ran two fingers down the length of the flat of it, and flicked the blood that still ran down it away to the floor.

Without turning my back, I whispered back to them. "I'll see you all back at the dojo. _Jâ, mata_."

Kaoru turned to Kenshin as soon as Sachi had disappeared from view into the night's darkness out the dojo's doors. "I think you made her mad."

Kenshin's eyes till followed the path she had taken into the night. "No. She hurts inside. She would have been mad at anyone who discovered her for what she really is."

"How did she do it?" Sano asked, still at ends with why Sachi refused to acknowledge her skills.

"Some just are born with it, and have it. She's still rudimentary, but this one has no doubt at some point someone taught her. I wonder who it was…" Kenshin mused quietly, and then trailed off thoughtfully. He snapped out of it, turning to Kaoru.

"Kaoru-dono, did you have any idea? Did she talk to you, or maybe Megumi-san?"

Kaoru shook her head. "No. Not to me. She said that she had a secret in her past, and that maybe one day she would tell me, but…she had always said that she was going to tell you someday. Maybe you just found out before she could tell you."

Reeling back suddenly, Kenshin's eyes widened as his memory flashed back to a few days past.

' "_Kenshin, can I talk to you about something?"_

"_What is it, bijin?"_

_A pause. "There's something that I want to tell you."_

_His mouth pulled down in a frown. "What is it you wish to tell this one?"_

"_I-"_

_The moment was lost in the void of words unsaid between the two of them that grew volumes each day.'_

"Oh," he exclaimed suddenly, and then turned, running out the door after the girl in her wake.

"I woke up one morning in one of the master's houses, pressed up against a wall as if I was trying to disappear inside of it and hide. I realized as I sat up and looked over the room that I barely knew, that was mine, that had nothing in it I was attached to, that my way of living had gotten stuck on 'survive', and that there was no one, no thing, no place that I actually truly enjoyed. I felt like I was drowning without any hope of ever breathing clean air again."

"You fell into the trap of the assassin life," Kenshin said quietly, looking down. "There is danger for yourself in becoming attached to anything, having any comfort, so you live your life of no emotions so you won't feel the pain."

"Yes. I couldn't trust anyone, so I withdrew."

"You lost yourself."

"I am guilty of that. Somewhere along the way, I lost the girl to the killer."

"But this one doesn't understand," Kenshin said, his eyes large and serious in the lamplight. "Why put yourself through all that for me?"

"Because I wanted to see you again. I know that no matter what I did, how many people I had to kill to get there, my freedom to find you was all that mattered to me. We had had a promise that we would meet again to be together in Tokyo without the past. And I don't break my promises."

"This one doesn't either."

"Then through Fate both our pasts became part of a story of bloodshed for different causes. Yours was for justice, mine was for hope."

"Though I would have had the bloodshed not be spilt for me, if there had been another way."

I smiled crookedly, and reached forward, tapping him on the end of the nose. "Then you should have come looking for me, dolt, so I didn't go out looking for you and get myself in trouble."

"That I should have." His response caught me off guard, and my smile fumbled for a moment. "We'd been apart for too long, _bijin_. I didn't realize that until I saw you again. It's good to have you by my side again."

"As I am happy to be there."

I stopped for a moment, and my smile faded. "Kenshin, how long will it be before I'm no longer an 'assassin'? How long will it be until I forget that time and am forgive for my deeds? Take the title away from me. I don't want it anymore."

He looked up at me sharply, his eyes taking on an expression I had never seen before, one of agony and bitterness. "Never. You will never lose the blood that was split by you and stained your hands, or the cries of the people that you killed from orders, for money. Their cries of terror and pleas of mercy will follow you into your grave, and until then, haunt your dreams and your thoughts, ringing in your mind. That is your punishment. Knowing that you killed all of them, every last face floating before your waking eyes."

"I've heard their anguish. I've heard their hearts cry out in pain. Their loved ones screams. I'm tired and weary. And if what you say is true, I won't get the release from them that I need. I will be an assassin forever, then."

"It is the weight you must bear with sorrow and repent for what you have done, so that you may never forget."

"Those poor people...and their tear-stained faces and cries of terror reflected in their eyes…I was a monster to them."

"We all must battle our own demons."

"But what if I am my own demon?"

Kenshin looked up at me, reaching forward and closing my eyes with two fingers. "Find peace with yourself, Sachi. Forgive yourself first."


	8. Sayônara

Act Eight: "_Sayõnara_."

Kenshin stood across the yard from me, holding up a crisp and clean sheet as he folded it after washing it. He smiled, caught up in the simplistic pleasure of the job well done. He bent down to pick up another sheet, and I grinned, jumping the railing of the porch and running across the yard silently, using the lightest possible movements of my feet, not letting them stay on one piece of ground long enough to even make a slight sound.

He straightened up, and I sprang forward, my arms making contact around his shoulders as the curled around them, and I clung to his back, smiling. "Got'cha," I whispered in his ear, and he turned his face slightly to me, the smile resting lightly on his face a dead-giveaway that he had known I was coming and that he had let me jump onto him on purpose.

"But…how?" I managed, and he smiled, hiking me up higher onto his back and threading his arms through my legs that laced around his slender waist.

"This one doesn't reveal his secrets," he said, and then turned back, so that my peering face around his shoulder and his were pressed together, nose-tip to nose-tip. "But it has something to do with the vibrations of your feet hitting the ground."

"But my feet weren't even touching the ground for more then a fraction of a second at a time!"

"Something to work on, this one thinks." Kenshin laughed quietly, and I lifted my face up to the warm sunlight.

Maekawa looked at me sharply. "So it appears that these old eyes didn't fool this quick mind. There was something more to you then met the eyes. But I berate myself on not seeing it sooner. It's harder when the deeds are done in the shadows at night to know who committed them."

"I humbly beg your forgiveness for my deception, and ask you if you would continue to be my sensei, even though I am probably not worthy of such kindness," I asked evenly, bowing low to my knees.

"Hmm. Give me one reason why I should take you back."

"Because I have yet much to learn if I am even to master 'blades that teach' rather then 'blades that kill'. My honor demands that I give back what I have taken, and through teaching those who would learn for love rather then hate is the way that I can see best."

Images of the younger generation of students flashed through my head, the eager faces on children holding sticks and playing at being samurai in the town's streets in front of their houses, or in Yahiko's face as he swung his shinai in the dojo yard, listening to whoever voiced instruction.

"And how could an assassin have a samurai's honor?" Maekawa-sensei demanded. My eyes bored into him steadily.

"Because in the long run, all a samurai is is an assassin who kills to protect. And who is not to say that I didn't kill to protect?"

"But you didn't. You killed for money, from orders."

"True. That is why I repent now by serving and guarding those in need. Who is more in need then the children?" I made my point triumphantly, and then pressed on, not able to keep another point in. "And, samurai kill from orders from their lord, to defend him. And they are paid by his actions toward them and their families, keeping them on his land and caring for them."

Maekawa's face twitched at the corners of his mouth suddenly, and then flattened out again. "You always find some way to prove me wrong, Shinrin-kun. Keeping you at this dojo would continue to be an education not only for you and your future with swords, but also for me and your endless word-games. Besides, how else am I supposed to learn some of this 'assassin-style' _kenjutsu_ if you don't stay, neh?"

We smiled at each other, and I let out a breath. "It's called Yoruyousha–ken. 'Swords of Night-Mercy'."

"'Night-Mercy', neh? Sounds to me like it was specifically made for assassin training."

"It was. Murder isn't called 'murder' in assassin groups. It's called 'mercy of the night'."

"Is that so?"

"Would I lie to you?" I asked with a quick sideways grin as I followed the sensei out the door to the training grounds.

"Hmph."

"Kenshin." He wasn't in the room we shared.

"Kenshin!" He wasn't in the training hall either. My heart began to race again. Even he wouldn't have left without saying something. This was the Rurouni who wouldn't even leave to go into town without telling me where and why he left. Always offering an explanation, it was if he made it his mission not to worry me again. Once burned by him, he was determined not to make that mistake again.

But he was a Hitokiri, as I always remembered not far out of my trains of thought. I wouldn't find him until he wanted me to.

I burst out of the dojo doors, flinging them wide and ignoring them as they slammed back against the walls. "KENSHIN!" I yelled to the yard. Nothing.

Closing my eyes, I breathed deep, centering myself and thinking of who I was looking for. Any energy in the area of his I would find. And from somewhere behind me, I felt him.

Whirling around, I sprinted through the opened doors again and down the halls of the house, flinging Sano to the side as I passed him in the hall and he didn't move as fast as I wanted him to.

"Hey! Watch it! Where're you heading?!"

I shook my head to him, and continued to the back doors, and out them, stopping sharply and looking into the darkening back yard. Under the back cherry trees I found the person I was looking for, where he stood next to Kaoru. Something about his expression, even from my distance, stopped me from running to them, and I bit my lower lip and gave them their space, shifting from foot to foot in suspense.

I saw him say something to the girl in low tones, and then embrace her in a hug. Letting her go, I heard him clearly say '_sayõnara_.' The long-time tense of the good-bye made my heart jump in surprise. He said something else, and Kaoru fell to her knees suddenly.

Kenshin turned away, looking up to the dojo, and to me. I realized he hadn't missed me running out and very well knew I was there. "Sachi."

Without waiting for my mind to move them, my feet walked down to them, and I looked at Kaoru, whose face was haunted with pain and longing. I gave her a look of regret and placed a hand on her shoulder, dipping my head down. "I guess this is _sayõnara_ for me too. Take care of yourself, Kaoru-dono."

Kenshin stopped and looked back at Kaoru, who was on the ground, tears pouring from her wide eyes. "In the world of old memories, there's no room for visitors," he said with a sad half-smile. "I never meant to hurt you, Kaoru-dono, but this is something that is meant for _us._"

As he turned to go out the back gate, I reached out and grabbed onto the back of his gi. "Where are we going?" I asked carefully.

"To Kyoto."

"Shishio?"

"_Hai_."

"Then you are going for him."

He turned profile and looked down the road that led away from Tokyo and all that we knew and to Kyoto and the uncertain future ahead, Kenshin reached out a hand to me, palm facing up. "Ready, _bijin_?"

I smiled at him, seeing the manifestation as if all the answers to the questions of the world were concealed inside the eyes of someone next to you. Slipping my own hand into his, I grasped it like one would hold something rare and precious.

"Always."

-------------------

Glossary for Sakabatô Crossing.

Now, I don't know about you, (heh, for all I know, you could be natively Japanese!) but for me, a glossary of unfamiliar words is always helpful. So I decided I would try to snuggle my way into good favor by including one, and also to be helpful! (Helpful people are always nice.)

I got most of my phrases from Japanese Phrases for Dummies, and then the spellings of most other words from Rurouni Kenshin. (Funny story: While reading JPfD, I discovered that for people like me, there needs to be something lower. So I decided there must be a Japanese Phrases for Complete Idiots. (Because I am one, much of the time, in between smart writer moments, and sleeping. Heh.)

So I would like you to stick with me and my affectionately-labeled:

Japanese Glossary and Phrases for Dummies (and Complete Idiots)

Bokotu – A wooden practice sword.

-chan – Used after a name to denote familiarity, or said to a child. Like, "-, my dear."

Domo – Thanks, Thank you.

Domo arigatô – Thank you very much.

-dono – Used after a name to indicate high honor, such as "lord" or "lady", or in some cases, the person's humility who is saying it.

Edo – Tokyo's name before it was renamed at the beginning of the Meiji Era.

Gi – A man's shirt that looks like a kimono or yukata that was cut off half-way.

Hai – Yes.

Hajimemashite, yoroshiku onegaishimasu – No real English interpretation. Roughly means about "Beginning, (of meeting you,) I hope you'll be as nice to me as I am to you." (Used when meeting someone for the first time, to signify you haven't ever met them before.)

Hakama – Wide pant-legged pants that tie around your waist.

Haori – A man's mid-length over-coat or jacket.

Îe – No.

Îe, heta desu – No, I'm bad. (In response to Domo arigatô, or a compliment.)

Katana – A Japanese sword, used by samurai, hitokiri, and others.

Kimono – Women's formal versions of yukatas, only much more expensive, gaudy and elaborate. They reach down to the ground.

Kochirakoso yoroshiku onegaishimasu – (In response to 'Hajimemashite, yoroshiku onegaishimasu', meaning roughly, "It's I who should be saying that."

Kon'nichiwa – Good afternoon, informal.

Kowtow - And extreme bow, in which one gets on their knees and presses their forehead to the ground. Used only with far superior people, or in Kenshin's case, to show his humility to Sachi.

-kun – Used after a name of another student or person, such as a colleague to show respect.

Obi – A wide sash used to tie a yukata or kimono.

Ohayô – Good Morning, informal.

Okiya – A geisha house.

Sakabatô – A katana with the blade and flat edge reversed, so that killing doesn't occur when wielded normally. Kenshin carries one so he doesn't kill anyone, like he vowed not to.

-san – Used after a name to denote honor, like "Mrs." "Mr." Or "Miss".

Sasuga – I'm impressed by you, as always. (A compliment in response to something someone does.)

Sensei – A teacher.

Shinai – A practice sword made of four split pieces of dried bamboo, usually with a metal cap on the end to give it some weight and balance.

Shoji screen – The thing paper-like material used in doors, walls, and partitions in Japanese houses.

Tatami – A woven reed-like floor covering used in Japanese houses.

Yukata – A thin cotton kimono, but much less decorative. Worn for leisure, after baths, dinner, and around houses. Much like the equivalent of a bath-robe, only one you wouldn't be afraid to go out in public in.

Zanbatô – A gigantic sword used in earlier times by warriors in Japan to take down a horse and rider with one swing, (Sano's weapon.)


End file.
